Former president Duterte claims pal Quiboloy still in sect’s Davao turf

QUIBOLOY AND DUTERTE COMPOSITE IMAGE FROM INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

As a lawyer, former President Rodrigo Duterte said he would advise his close friend and spiritual adviser Apollo Quiboloy to surface and appear in court.

“But if you feel you can’t get a fair deal with this administration, and I’m talking here about Marcos and everything, ’di h’wag ka nang lumabas, diyan ka na lang sa Tamayong (don’t get out, better stay there in Tamayong),” Duterte said at a press conference late Thursday night.

“He is just there,” Duterte said, referring to the site of Prayer Mountain, a 50-hectare property of Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) sect in Barangay Tamayong, Davao City.

READ: Duterte tells Quiboloy: You’re wanted, don’t drag me into this

The former President, who was named “administrator” of KOJC properties in an announcement made by the sect on March 8, spoke of Quiboloy’s supposed whereabouts hours after the Pasig City court issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of qualified human trafficking.

It was the second arrest order issued against the KOJC leader, who had remained at large since the first warrant was issued by the Davao City court on April 3 on a separate charge of sexual abuse.

The Pasig and Davao cases involve the same complainant: a woman who claimed she was raped, suffered emotional and physical maltreatment, and rendered forced labor—all in the name of religious servitude—during her days as a KOJC follower. The alleged abuses date back to 2011 when she was still 17 years old.

READ: Apollo Quiboloy and Rodrigo Duterte: The intricate knot

In both cases, Quiboloy is accused along with five other KOJC leaders, all of whom had already posted bail in the Davao case. The Pasig case is nonbailable.

Duterte said the Tamayong property was “too big” and had so many houses that the police would have difficulty looking for Quiboloy there.

‘Too big’ for arrest party

“If ever the police manage to secure a search warrant, they have to be sure which house he was hiding in as each house would require a different writ from the court,” said Duterte, who once served as a public prosecutor.

“Once [they] get inside and scour the entire property all day, they will be so tired that in the end they will become new members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ,” Duterte said in Filipino, drawing chuckles from the gathering.

He laughed off questions from reporters about suspicions that he had been protecting the fugitive televangelist, daring the media to go see his Davao City residence.

“If he was there, I’d up the ante and give you P200,000, maybe P300,000 or P500,000,” he said.

As KOJC leader, Quiboloy is known to have properties in Davao City, Samal Island and other parts of the country, aside from assets in the United States.

Property manager

Explaining his role as KOJC property administrator, Duterte said: “It means that while he (Quiboloy) is not around, someone has to oversee the management of the kingdom to preserve it and prevent it from going to waste.”

The 79-year-old said he was given a room behind the KOJC chapel to serve as his sleeping quarters.

Brig. Gen. Alden Delvo, the police regional director, earlier said tracking teams had already searched for Quiboloy—without success—at Tamayong and his other properties near the Davao City airport.

“I need real, timely and relevant information so that as the regional director I can give proper directives to my men,” Delvo said. “Once we have such information, we can apply for a search warrant.”

Archie Albao, the regional director of the National Bureau of Investigation, had also explained that they could not just scour the entire Tamayong property without a search warrant.

Although the arrest warrant specified Prayer Mountain as Quiboloy’s address, KOJC leaders also allowed them entry at his resort on Samal Island and at the KOJC-owned Jose Maria College, Albao said.