Not enough votes for Quiboloy at Senate

There weren’t enough votes supporting pastor Apollo Quiboloy at the Senate, prompting the chamber to issue an order giving him 48 hours to explain why he should not be cited in contempt and be arrested for refusing to face a Senate probe.

- MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB

 

Quiboloy’s Senate defenders failed to muster the eight signatures required to block the contempt order, with only Mark Villar joining his mother Cynthia along with Robinhood Padilla, Imee Marcos and Bong Go. 

Sen. Risa Hontiveros said that she and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri signed the show-cause order dated March 13 for Quiboloy to appear before the Senate.

Hontiveros yesterday denied Vice President Sara Duterte’s claim that the senator’s investigation on alleged sexual abuses committed in Apollo Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) is a form of “persecution” and “trial by publicity.”

At a press briefing, Hontiveros said her hearings as Senate women and family relations committee chairperson seek to strengthen labor and anti-human trafficking laws by looking into the former ministry members’ allegations that they were raped by the pastor and forced to raise money for his church and to fund his lifestyle.

“There is no trial by publicity here. The judgment on his innocence and guilt is within the court and outside the hands of the Senate,” she added.

The Senate also respected Quiboloy’s right to due process, after it issued a show cause order giving the pastor 48 hours to explain why he should not be cited in contempt for refusing to attend the hearings, according to Hontiveros.