After the apparent failure of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to arrest Pastor Apollo Quiboloy for the past few weeks, the Senate staff joined the manhunt over the weekend.
This developed as former president Rodrigo Duterte told his spiritual advisor not to involve him in his mounting legal problems and just come out of hiding.
Local police and personnel from the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms last week searched Quiboloy’s Davao City properties, where the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) is believed to be staying.
According to Police Regional Office 11 chief Brig. Gen. Alden Delvo, the joint team checked three of the pastor’s properties in hopes of serving him the warrant for his arrest. They, however, were unable to find Quiboloy.
Duterte had said that he believed Quiboloy was somewhere in his sprawling property in Davao, but that law enforcers would have a hard time locating him. This is because they will need one search warrant for each property and not a single warrant to cover all houses and buildings in the area.
Delvo said the contempt warrant “was received by Israelito Torreon, legal counsel of Pastor Quiboloy” at the church’s compound along the Phil-Japan Friendship Highway, Bajada Flyover, Davao City.
The team also went to the KJC compound in Prayer Mountain, Barangay Tamayong, Calinan District where they were met by another of Quiboloy’s legal counsels, Kathleen Kaye Lauente.
Yet another site the PNP/Senate team searched was Glory Mountain along Purok 6, also in Barangay Tamayong.
The team was attempting to serve the warrant of arrest issued by Sen. Risa Hontiveros and signed by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri after the pastor had ignored Senate summons to appear before the committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality.
Besides the local PNP and the Senate team, the National Bureau of Investigation is also involved in the search for Quiboloy, who has issued several conditions before agreeing to surrender.
He is demanding that the President and the Justice Secretary give a written guarantee that the US will not be involved in his cases.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. dismissed the demand as a case of a “tail wagging the dog.” He only assured Quiboloy that he would be treated fairly.
Justice Sec. Jesus Crispin Remulla advised Quiboloy to “argue your charges before the court, where you remain the accused. Tell the naked truth, that way you can redeem yourself.”
The Justice department also said the surrender of the pastor should be done “unconditionally.”
Quiboloy also faces two other warrants for his arrest from Davao City and Pasig City courts, aside from being wanted in the US by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The church leader’s cases include human trafficking, abuse of minors, sex abuse, and dollar smuggling, among others.
The case he faces in Pasig is for qualified human trafficking, a non-bailable offense.
He has downplayed the local cases while also maintaining his innocence of the cases he faces in the US.
For his part, former president Duterte addressed his religious adviser: “You’re wanted, please leave me out of this.”
Duterte also said that he was declining to facilitate the surrender of Quiboloy. He, however, admitted that he is in constant communication with his friend, whose properties Duterte is now administering.
Duterte said he would offer a reward of half a million pesos to anyone who could prove that he was helping hide the pastor.
Unless the government agrees to his conditions, Quiboloy said he will never be apprehended by authorities. He also said that when worse comes to worst, he will not be caught alive.
