IN THE KNOW: Who is Apollo Quiboloy?
Apollo Quiboloy is a televangelist and founder of the homegrown Christian sect Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Name Above Every Name, or KJC, based in Davao province.
He founded KJC with 15 followers on Sept. 1, 1985, after leaving the United Pentecostal Church.
Quiboloy, who calls himself the “appointed son of God,” claims his sect has four million followers in the Philippines and two million in other countries.
He and President Rodrigo Duterte are known to be close friends.
Quiboloy and 1,500 members of his sect held a rally at Manila’s Quirino Grandstand in September 2015 to convince the then Davao City mayor to run for President.
He had a dream
Quiboloy claimed that many years ago, he had a dream about then then mayor becoming President.
When the mayor launched his campaign in 2016, Quiboloy supported him by lending him his private plane and helicopter and threatened to lead a revolution should his candidate get cheated at the polls.
Quiboloy has been linked to major controversies, including land grabbing, a child custody dispute, and an attempt to smuggle cash out of Hawaii.
In 2005, Quiboloy and KJC were investigated following a demand by a mother from Baguio City to reclaim custody of her daughter from his sect.
Erlinda Rillon alleged that Quiboloy lured Baguio teenagers and young adults like her daughter, Arlene, who refused to return home.
The Rillons sued the KJC’s Baguio coordinators for abducting and detaining their daughter, but a Baguio Regional Trial Court judge dismissed the case when Arlene turned 19 in August 2004.
In May 2005, KJC filed libel charges against the Rillon couple, who were arrested three months later but were released on bail.
Three years later, Rillon finally saw her daughter. But Arlene sued her parents and three government social workers for forcing her to return to Baguio.
Bagobo killing
In 2008, Quiboloy was tagged as the brains behind the killing of Datu Dominador Diarog, a leader of the Bagobo-K’lata tribe in Davao City’s Tugbok district.
On April 29, 2008, unidentified gunmen fired at Diarog’s house, wounding him, his wife and two of their children.
Diarog died in hospital the next day. His wife believes her husband was killed for refusing to sell 2 hectares of their property for P50,000 to followers of Quiboloy.
Planted to several crops, the property is within the 700-ha
ancestral domain claimed by the Bagobos in Tugbok. It is located on a hilltop that KJC reportedly wanted to develop into a resort.
Quiboloy published a statement in various Davao City newspapers denying any involvement in the killing.
In February 2014, Quiboloy and his sect were again caught in another land grabbing controversy involving ancestral land in another part of Tugbok.
According to the victims, armed men forced them from their homes at Sitio Diolo, telling them their land had been sold to Quiboloy.
Sitio Diolo, home to 20 “lumad” families, is part of the 6,800-ha ancestral domain claim of the Bagobo-K’lata tribe and includes 10 lumad communities at Tugbok’s Barangay Manuel Guianga.
Members of KJC said Quiboloy had nothing to do with the land dispute.
Land for cash
They said former Sitio Diolo residents had turned over their rights to the Jesus Christ Workers and Members Cooperative, in exchange for cash or goods.
Quiboloy was born on April 25, 1950, the youngest of the nine children of Jose Quiboloy and Maria Carreon, who migrated to Davao from Lubao, Pampanga province, in the 1940s.
Aside from being a televangelist, Quiboloy also oversees Sonshine Media Network International, a television network based in Davao City.
He also owns a string of radio stations and two newspapers.
Quiboloy also established the “Prayer Mountain and Paradise of the Garden of Eden” on the foothills of Mt. Apo in Davao.
SOURCE: INQUIRER ARCHIVES
