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.
鈥淏ut if you feel you can鈥檛 get a fair deal with this administration, and I鈥檓 talking here about Marcos and everything, 鈥檇i h鈥檞ag ka nang lumabas, diyan ka na lang sa Tamayong (don鈥檛 get out, better stay there in Tamayong),鈥� Duterte said at a press conference late Thursday night.
鈥淗e is just there,鈥� Duterte said, referring to the site of Prayer Mountain, a 50-hectare property of Quiboloy鈥檚 Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) sect in Barangay Tamayong, Davao City.
READ: Duterte tells Quiboloy: You鈥檙e wanted, don鈥檛 drag me into this
The former President, who was named 鈥渁dministrator鈥� of KOJC properties in an announcement made by the sect on March 8, spoke of Quiboloy鈥檚 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鈥攁ll in the name of religious servitude鈥攄uring 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 鈥渢oo big鈥� and had so many houses that the police would have difficulty looking for Quiboloy there.
鈥楾oo big鈥� for arrest party
鈥淚f 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,鈥� said Duterte, who once served as a public prosecutor.
鈥淥nce [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,鈥� 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.
鈥淚f he was there, I鈥檇 up the ante and give you P200,000, maybe P300,000 or P500,000,鈥� 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: 鈥淚t 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.鈥�
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鈥攚ithout success鈥攁t Tamayong and his other properties near the Davao City airport.
鈥淚 need real, timely and relevant information so that as the regional director I can give proper directives to my men,鈥� Delvo said. 鈥淥nce we have such information, we can apply for a search warrant.鈥�
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鈥檚 address, KOJC leaders also allowed them entry at his resort on Samal Island and at the KOJC-owned Jose Maria College, Albao said.