Alias Amanda speaking at the Senate committee on women’s Tuesday hearing on the alleged offenses of Apollo Quiboloy and his organization Kingdom of Jesus Christ. (Screengrab from a video from the Senate of the Philippines)
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday challenged Apollo Quiboloy, the founder and leader of the Davao-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), to face his accusers after he mocked the Senate inquiry into his former followers’ claims that he sexually abused them.
“If he’s ready (to answer the allegations), he should just appear in the Senate,” Hontiveros said. “He is at the center of the accusations of the victims. That’s why he should directly answer them.”
Hontiveros, who led the investigation as chair of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality, said they would ask the Department of Justice to issue an immigration lookout bulletin order against Quiboloy to monitor his movements.
The Bureau of Immigration said its records showed that the televangelist was still in the country.
“The subpoena has been issued by the Senate committee in the competent exercise of its legal mandate. So, Quiboloy, you should show yourself!” Hontiveros said.
On Tuesday, three former members of Quiboloy’s religious sect, including two Ukrainian women, told the Senate panel that he repeatedly raped them in a span of several years.
One of the victims, who was identified only as “Amanda” to protect her identity, tearfully narrated how Quiboloy started to abuse her in 2014 when she was just 17 years old.
The KOJC leader and spiritual adviser of former President Rodrigo Duterte declined the Senate committee’s invitation to attend the proceedings.
Instead, he released an audio recording on Wednesday belittling the investigation as he also dared Hontiveros to help his accusers file criminal cases against him.‘Smear campaign’
Quiboloy, who has been named one of the most wanted suspected sex offenders in the United States, said the three women’s allegations were part of a “smear campaign” to destroy his “international reputation.”
“I will face you anywhere, anytime in a court of law. Just do it. If you cannot do that, you are all bogus … You don’t deserve my respect because you don’t respect my constitutional rights,” he told Hontiveros.
“I will not also respect your office as a senator if you cannot do these conditions that I’m telling you to do,” he said.
According to Quiboloy, his accusers who testified before Hontiveros’ panel “demonized, bedeviled and made a monster out of me.”
He branded their allegations as “lies,” “libelous” and “false,” saying these were included in a criminal case against him that a court in Davao City had supposedly dismissed.
Hontiveros, he added, already “convicted me” by echoing the allegations hurled against him.
“I will not subject myself to unfair statements. I will not subject myself to injustices that are done [under the] cloak of a Senate hearing,” Quiboloy said.