Here is the official statement from Atty. Ferdinand Topacio regarding the P10-million bounty concerning his client, Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
STATEMENT OF ATTY. FERDINAND S. TOPACIO:
"While we do not question the prerogative of the police under the Department of the Interior and LocaL Government (DILG) to provide reward monies for subjects of outstanding warrants, certain details of the 10 million-peso bounty on Pastor Apollo Quiboloy cannot but raise serious questions.
"Foremost amongst these is the fact -- admittted by Sec. Abalos -- that the reward consists of private funds. I know for a fact, having been once part of the DILG, that rewards are subject to memoranda and usually sourced from government intelligence funds. In this case, why have private funds entered the picture? Are there no public funds left? And what is the motivation of these private donors, whom Mr. Abalos does not want to disclose, in upping the ante for the arrest of Pastor Quiboloy?
"I challenge Mr. Abalos to name these supposed donors, for the sake of transparency and invoking the Constitutional right of the people to information regarding matters of public concern, so that we may know the motives and purposes of these private individuals, if truly they exist.
"The award is also discriminatory. Abalos seems to forget that there is no such thing as unfettered discretion in a republican and constitutional government such as ours. There is a provision on equal protection of laws. Public records indicate that the average rewards for crimes for which Pastor Quiboloy is charged, is only a little over a million pesos, even for members of the MILF and declared terrorists organizations such as the CPP-NPA. Such a surprisingly disproportionate reward for Pastor Quiboloy creates prejudice in the minds of the people that he is more dangerous than those who commit murders and acts to topple the government. It is at war with the presumption of innocence and endangers the life of a mere accused who has not yet been convicted.
"This latest assault on the dignity of Pastor Quiboloy is but the latest in a display of wantonness and disregard for the rule of law of this administration."