Quiboloy said to be getting kid-glove treatment
By Chloe Mari A. Hufana, Reporter
THE PHILIPPINE National Police (PNP) is treating embattled church leader Apollo C. Quiboloy with a kid glove, the chief of a lawyer’s group said on Monday.
“Quiboloy is being treated with a kid glove if we compare how the PNP enforced judicial processes in other cases,” National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) President Ephraim B. Cortez told BusinessWorld in a Viber message.
He cited the cases of Agaton Topacio and Eugenia Magpantay, former Maoist rebels who were both old and sick and were killed while being arrested by police in Angono, Rizal in 2020 over murder charges.
“In these cases, the PNP was not as tolerant as they are now in dealing with Quiboloy,” Mr. Cortez said. “If they are as tolerant to these other victims… the others would still be alive.”
This came after police deployed about 2,000 policemen to search the Kingdom of Jesus Christ’s (KOJC) 30-hectare compound in Davao City at the weekend to serve a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Quiboloy.
Mr. Quiboloy and five other members of his church are facing charges of child abuse and human trafficking, with two courts in Davao City in southern Philippines and Pasig City in Metro Manila having ordered their arrest.
The Senate has separately ordered his arrest for snubbing its own investigation of the church.
United States federal prosecutors in 2021 indicted Mr. Quiboloy for having sex with women and underage girls who faced threats of abuse and “eternal damnation.”
Charges also included sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, marriage fraud, money laundering, cash smuggling and visa fraud.
Mr. Cortez said the number of law enforcers enforcing the arrest was just enough given the expected resistance from their supporters.
“The police were less violent and more tolerant when they dealt with Quiboloy and his followers,” Mr. Cortez said. “They displayed maximum tolerance [when] dealing with the agitated supporters of Quiboloy. This is different from how they have dealt with protesters holding peaceful rallies.”
He said the 1987 Constitution protects protesters, but church members during the raid were “obstructing the implementation of a warrant of arrest.”
One KOJC member died of a heart attack on Saturday, but police said the member had been staying in the compound’s watchtower for four days.
Mr. Quiboloy’s legal counsel, Israelito P. Torreon noted that aside from the death, four others suffered a heart attack, four minors suffered from severe anxiety attacks and 16 were hurt.
He also said police arrested 18 people, while 12 more were taken for obstruction of justice. “All sound system equipment were confiscated,” he told BusinessWorld in a Viber message.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice said the PNP had rescued alleged human trafficking victims during the weekend raid.
“The rescued victims are now under the protection of the police after they were evaluated and assessed by the [Social Welfare department ] Region 11,” it said in a statement.
In a separate statement, the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) urged other victims or their relatives to come forward as “this is not the first time information has reached the IACAT about alleged human trafficking within the religious organization.”
Senate President Francis Joseph G. Escudero and Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros called for Mr. Quiboloy’s surrender through separate Viber messages to reporters.
