TWO YEARS ago, when Rodrigo Duterte was still in power, the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office dismissed criminal charges of rape, child abuse, and human trafficking against Pastor Apollo Quiboloy and five other people involved in his church.
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Blenda Sanchez Portugal claimed that she was only 10 years old when she was introduced by her father to the spiritual leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KoJC) church.
Blenda said that during “months of blessing” she would be asked to sing carols and beg for money, sell food and hand out envelopes for solicitation. The alleged rape happened when she was 17 years old and a scholar of the pastor.
According to the Davao prosecutors, Blenda’s complaint was dismissed because it lacked “the documentary evidence needed to form a reasonable ground of suspicion that child abuse was in fact committed by the respondents against the complainant.”
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What is striking about the dismissed complaint is that it mirrors the allegations that formed the basis for Quiboloy’s criminal indictment in the United States of America.
He and his top cohorts are wanted there for allegedly running a sex trafficking operation that coerced young women to engage in intercourse with the religious leader under pain of hellfire.
The defendants were alleged to have recruited women of roughly 12 to 25 years old to serve as assistants or “pastorals” and forced into performing “night duty” with Quiboloy.
The indictment cited by the US Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California further states that “defendant Quiboloy and other KOJC administrators told pastorals that performing ‘night duty’ was ‘God’s will’ and a privilege, as well as a necessary demonstration of the pastoral’s commitment to give her body to defendant Quiboloy as ‘The Appointed Son of God.’”
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The US Attorney’s Office identified Quiboloy’s primary residence as the KOJC compound in Davao City, but that he also maintains “large residences” in Calabasas, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Kapolei, Hawaii.
The US treasury department has now imposed economic sanctions against Quiboloy which means that all his transactions in the US are blocked. US persons and entities are prohibited from transacting with him.
The move against Quiboloy’s monetary interests proceeds from an executive order implementing the US Global Magnitsky Act. This law was passed in 2016. It authorizes the US President to freeze the assets of, and deny visas to, foreign individuals or entities identified as engaging in corruption or human rights violations.
Quiboloy was one of only 40 people in nine countries to have been so sanctioned, in celebration of the International Anti-Corruption and Human Rights Day.
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Quiboloy surfaced publicly in the crosshairs of the US justice system when his private airplane worth around 15 million dollars was accosted at the Honolulu airport in February 2018. Around $350,000 in cash was about to be smuggled inside socks stuffed into a suitcase.
The religious leader has not dared face his criminal cases in the US.
In the meantime, he has parlayed himself into a formidable political endorser and rightist media mogul who can dish out favors to those who need them.
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Now that Duterte is not the President, will government finally move to execute the laws it is sworn to implement? Or will this country continue to provide refuge for those who have the means to frustrate access to justice?
The Department of Justice will play a central role in this unfolding legal drama, whether it is to pursue an indictment or process an extradition.
The Secretary of Justice has weathered a couple of heavy-duty storms a few months after his appointment. The appointed son of God brings fire and brimstone./PN
