EMBATTLED Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) founder Pastor Apollo Quiboloy is in for more legal woes as a Pasig City court yesterday issued a warrant for his arrest for violation of Republic Act 9208 or the 2003 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.
The case is a non-bailable offense.
This is the second arrest warrant issued against the religious leader. The first was issued last week by the Davao City Regional Trial Court for child and sexual abuse charges.
Police and military operatives have yet to serve the first arrest order on the KOJC leader, who has earlier said he has gone into hiding due to an alleged plan of the United States government to kill him.
In a three-page order, Pasig RTC Branch 159 Acting Presiding Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa denied the March 21 motion filed by Quiboloy’s camp seeking to suspend court proceedings and to hold in abeyance the issuance of the arrest warrant pending the resolution by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla of his motion for reconsideration challenging his indictment.
Government prosecutors have opposed the motion, arguing that Section 11 of Rule 116 of the Rules on Criminal Procedure only allows the suspension of court proceedings when a petition for review is filed with the DOJ, but not on instances when a motion for reconsideration on the resolution of a petition for review is filed.
The Pasig court agreed with the prosecutors, pointing out that under the Rules, there are only three instances when arraignments can be suspended, namely, the accused appears to be suffering from an unsound mental condition, there is a prejudicial question, and a petition for review of the resolution of the prosecutor is pending either with the DOJ or the Office of the President.
“After consideration of the arguments brought forth by the parties, the court finds the Motion to Defer/Suspend Proceedings and Hold in Abeyance Issuance of Warrant of Arrest to be a prohibited motion and should therefore be denied,” the court said.
“This court, after personally examining the information and its supporting documents, finds probable cause for the arrest of all the accused. Let warrants of arrest be issued against them,” the court added.
Aside from Quiboloy, also ordered arrested are Jackielyn W. Roy, Cresente Canada, Paulene Canada, Engrid Canada, and Sylvia Cemanes.
The five are also named as Quiboloy’s co-accused in the case before the Davao City court.
Four of the co-accused have voluntarily surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation, while Cresente Canada was arrested in Barangay Tamayong in Calinan, Davao City on April 3.
The five have posted bail of P80,000 each for their provisional liberty.
MOTION TO QUASH
Meanwhile, one of Quiboloy’s lawyer said they will file a motion to quash the arrest warrant issued by the Davao City RTC.
Lawyer Israelito Torreo told ABS-CBN News Channel that the DOJ violated Quiboloy’s constitutional right to speedy resolution of cases after it allowed “more than four years for the complainant to prove her case.”
“The right to speedy disposition of a case is a substantive right and it is a protected right under the Constitution,“ Torreo said, adding that he is confident that the court will grant their motion.
To recall, the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office initially dismissed the complaints of rape, child abuse, trafficking in persons through forced labor and trafficking in persons through sexual abuse against Quiboloy and his co-accused.
The complainant was a former member of the Davao-based KOJC who claimed that she was sexually abused in 2014.
The victim filed a petition for review in 2020 before the Office of the Justice Secretary, seeking a reversal of the decision of the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office.
Remulla granted the petition for review and reversed the dismissal of the case early last month and ordered the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office to refile the case.
Quiboloy has denied the accusations that he sexually abused his female personal assistants, claiming they made up the accusations because he rejected them.
Torreo made the statement hours before the Pasig city court issued another arrest warrant against the religious leader.
Aside from the arrest warrants issued by the Davao and Pasig City courts, the Senate and the House of Representatives have also issued separate arrest orders against Quiboloy for his refusal to cooperate in the hearings being conducted by the two chambers.
QUIBOLOY STILL IN PH
In the same interview, Torreo said Quiboloy is still in the country.
“I can say that he is still in Philippine territory. He is still in the Philippines,” he said.
Remulla has issued an immigration lookout bulletin order (ILBO) against Quiboloy. An ILBO, however, will not prevent Quiboloy from leaving the country as it is for monitoring purposes only and is not in itself a sufficient prohibition to bar someone from leaving the country.
Only the courts can issue a hold departure order.
Torreo also defended the conditions imposed by his client for him to surrender, even as he added that Quiboloy “may not be totally against” extradition to the United States.
“I believe that it is not an unreasonable request, and he merely wants an assurance that he will not be extraordinarily rendered to the United States, which is different from extradition,” he said.
Rendition is the illegal transfer of a person believed to be engaged in wrongdoing without legal processes, while extradition is the process where one country turns over a person to another country to face the legal process in the future.
The embattled pastor was indicted by a California court in 2021 for allegedly conspiring to engage in sex trafficking.
Quiboloy has an active arrest warrant in the US issued on November 10, 2021, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The US Department of Treasury in 2022 also blocked Quiboloy’s assets over what it described as “serious human rights abuses” committed by the televangelist.
Remulla said the arrest warrant issued by the Pasig court is a welcome development and shows that the country’s justice system is working.”
“These arrest warrants herald the efficiency of our criminal justice system, echoing the strong resolve of the State and our society to hold accountable individuals who transgress the Rule of Law, regardless of their social status or wealth,“ Remulla said in a statement.
Earlier, Remulla dared Quiboloy to present himself in court and answer all the accusations if he is really innocent of the charges as he rejected the latter’s conditions for him to surrender to authorities. — With Christian Oineza
