Victims face Quiboloy, narrate sexual abuse

The victims of self-styled son of God Apollo Quiboloy confronted their alleged abuser at the Senate yesterday, saying they were groomed to perform sexual services for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader as part of their spiritual journey.

- By CECILLE SUERTE FELIPE

They revealed their identities after Quiboloy earlier mocked them for not showing their faces and hiding behind code names when they testified in previous Senate hearings.

Before the Senate committee on women, children and family relations presided over by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the women narrated how Quiboloy and his accomplices used the Bible to justify sexual abuse as an act of sacrificing their bodies to the pastor, in the manner of Jesus Christ's disciples.

Witnesses also confirmed the existence of the "Angels of Death" in the KOJC.

Col. Gene Licud, officer-in-charge of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in the Davao region, presented a diagram that detailed the organizational structure of the so-called Angels of Death to the Hontiveros panel.

"I come here today to the truth that has been silenced for three decades because of great fear and this is also on behalf of the many victims who have suffered in silence just like we have," said Teresita Valdehueza, a former head of KOJC's logistics department.

Valdehueza was passionate about serving God through Quiboloy's ministry until in 1993, she was instructed by Quiboloy to fly to Cebu and meet him where he would share with her a "divine revelation." She was then invited to spend the night with Quiboloy at the hotel, where she was told to surrender herself to the "anointed Son of God." "Sleeping beside a man I believed to be chosen by God was for me a great privilege, an opportunity for a sinner like me. But what followed shattered my sense of faith and trust. Without a word, after turning off the light, he embraced me, undressed me and violated me with his lustful act that left me in shock and speechless," Valdehueza said.

"He then said, 'This is the fulfillment of God's revelation," she added.