Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros yesterday said more “victim survivors” have been invited to the October 23 hearing of the Committee on Women on the complaints of former members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) against pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
Hontiveros said the invited resource persons have recently come out with their allegations against the religious leader.
“Hindi ko pa masabi ang exact number pero over the past seven months na nag-suspend kami, may mga nag-reach out sa opisina ko dahil nasubaybayan nila ang mga pagdinig at nasubaybayan nila yung pagtestigo ng mga kapwa nilang victim survivors (I still cannot tell their exact number but there are people who have reached out to my office the past months because they have been watching the past hearings and they have seen the other victim survivors testify),” she said.
She said the committee will take a break from its hearings on crimes linked to the illegal operation of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hubs and resume its inquiry on the issues related to Quiboloy.
“Matapos ng higit kalahating taong suspension, ma-re-resume na namin ang pagdinig kay Apollo Quiboloy sa Miyerkules, 23 nitong Oktubre. (After more than six months of suspension, we can resume the hearing on Apollo Quiboloy on Wednesday, October 23),” Hontiveros said in a press conference.
The Hontiveros panel had issued an arrest warrant against Quiboloy for his refusal to cooperate in the hearings.
The pastor surrendered to authorities last September 8 after police stormed the KOJC compound in Davao City in search of the religious leader.
The operation was in relation to the service of the arrest orders issued by the Pasig and Quezon city trial courts against Quiboloy and his co-accused in human trafficking and child abuse charges, respectively.
Quiboloy is now detained at the Pasig city jail.
JUSTICE TO VICTIMS
At the same time, Hontiveros said the guilty plea of Marissa Duenas, a human resource manager for the KOJC in Van Nuys in the United States, is a step closer in bringing justice to the victims of Quiboloy.
“It is a significant step towards securing accountability for Quiboloy’s disturbingly long list of crimes here and abroad — which includes sexual abuse of minors, qualified human trafficking, child abuse, and others…I also hope that Ms. Duenas — given her position in KOJC — would be open to participating in our continuing investigation on the various allegations of abuses and criminal acts of Quiboloy,” she said.
In an article that was posted on the news website of ABS-CBN, Duenas was reported as having entered a plea deal with the US government, where a trafficking case has been filed against her and two other members of the Quiboloy religious group.
According to the report, Duenas admitted that from 2015 to 2020, there was an agreement between her and others to commit marriage fraud to keep KOJC members in the US while evading immigration laws.
“At defendant’s direction, defendant’s co-conspirators caused more than 25 but fewer than 100 -130 Petitions for Alien Relative and related paperwork on behalf of KOJC members to be submitted to the US government, knowing that the marriages referenced in those petitions were fraudulent and that they were arranged for purposes of securing favorable immigration status for the beneficiary,” a copy of the plea agreement obtained by ABS-CBN News read.
The news article also said that Duenas and others made efforts to ensure that KOJC members “who solicited money on behalf of KOJC did not deposit more than $10,000 in cash into a bank account in order to avoid bank reporting requirements, including by instructing workers to deposit cash in increments below $10,000 and at different bank branches.”
Duenas was among the three US-based KOJC administrators arrested during the FBI’s initial raid of the KOJC’s Van Nuys location in February of 2020.