Risa Hontiveros —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA and Apollo Quiboloy —PHOTO FROM THE OFFICIAL PAGE OF SEN. BONGGO
Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Friday said she would request for the issuance of an arrest warrant against televangelist Apollo Quiboloy after he informed the Senate that he will continue to ignore its inquiry into the allegations of sexual abuse against him.
“Quiboloy should just appear at the [Senate hearing]. Why does he have to be so dramatic?” Hontiveros said in a statement.
“[He] would be detained in the Senate for disregarding the hearing, not because of the serious accusations of the victims against him,” she said.
The chair of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations, and gender equality made the remarks after Quiboloy sent a letter to her office on Friday in response to a show-cause order that Hontiveros issued on Wednesday.
The order directed the founder and leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) to explain within 48 hours why he should not be arrested for snubbing the summons for him to participate in the Senate proceedings.
Quiboloy has been accused by several of his former followers, including three Ukrainian women, that he repeatedly raped them while they were serving as “pastorals.”
Another former KOJC member testified before Hontiveros’ committee that the doomsday preacher sexually assaulted her when she was still a minor.
Quiboloy, the self-appointed “son of God,” was facing a similar arrest order in the House of Representatives for also snubbing its inquiry into the supposed violations of the legislative franchise of his media company, Sonshine Media Network International.
Hontiveros said she would ask Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to immediately order Quiboloy’s arrest.
Sufficient accommodation
She scoffed at Quiboloy’s argument that the Senate plenary should review her decision to have him arrested after he was cited in contempt for his non-cooperation.
According to her, she actually issued the show-cause just to accommodate Sen. Robinhood Padilla’s request even if the Senate committee’s rules did not require her to do so.
“It was a courtesy extended to [Padilla] at the request of the Senate President. If the issuance of a show-cause order was not in the rules, the need for a plenary hearing to resolve the show-cause order was also not in the rules,” she said.
Hontiveros said the reasons that Quiboloy mentioned in his letter were the same arguments that his lawyers raised when he failed to appear during the first hearing.
She reiterated that the Senate has held parallel inquiries of various incidents that were already subject to judicial investigation, the latest of which was the disappearance of a 27-year-old model in Batangas province.
READ: Sanctioning Quiboloy
In challenging Hontiveros’ contempt charges against him, Quiboloy claimed that the opposition senator had already handed down a guilty verdict on him even before the investigation started.
“The ongoing Senate investigation compelling [Quiboloy’s] appearance … to testify … is not in aid of legislation, but is tantamount to usurpation of judicial functions beyond the powers of the Senate,” read a portion of the letter that Quiboloy’s counsel, Melanio Balayan, sent to Hontiveros’ office. INQ