Court to inspect Quiboloy sect’s properties in Davao, NCR
A Pasig City court has ordered the inspection of six properties, including two in the National Capital Region (NCR), belonging to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), the sect founded by televangelist and alleged sex offender Apollo Quiboloy.
In a nine-page order on Friday in connection with the pastor’s human trafficking case, Acting Presiding Judge Redentor Cardenas of the Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC)-Branch 159 granted the prosecution’s motion for an ocular inspection of the KOJC congregation building at Barangay Rosario in Pasig City, the KOJC compound at Barangay Sauyo, Quezon City, the sect’s 30-hectare compound in Davao City, and three specific buildings within that compound.
This is to help the court “obtain … a clearer and more accurate understanding of the[se] locations where the alleged offenses of qualified trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation and labor trafficking were purportedly committed,” the order said.
“Thus, to verify their accuracy and dismiss the ambiguity, the court finds it necessary to personally observe the premises,” it added.
‘Miracle workers’
The court also noted that KOJC’s sprawling property along Philippine-Japan Friendship Highway in Davao City had a dormitory which was identified as a recruitment center for the sect’s “miracle workers,” just like the properties in Quezon City and Pasig.
The Davao property is also the address of Jose Maria College, where Quiboloy reportedly hid during a two-week standoff with police before his surrender on Sept. 8, 2024.
The property had a Bible school where the miracle workers were allegedly abused.
In his opposition to the ocular inspection, Quiboloy argued that it would merely serve as a “fishing expedition that could prejudice nonparties and violate third-party rights, including religious freedom and institutional autonomy.”
He also described the prosecution’s motion as a “belated attempt to compensate for [its] failure to establish facts during witness examination and improperly invoke the court’s inherent powers to bypass procedural constitutional safeguards.”
Wanted in US
The Pasig court, however, maintained that ocular inspections are “proper if the court finds it necessary, but such is authorized only to help the court in clearing a doubt, reaching a conclusion, or finding the truth.”
“But it is not the main trial nor should it exclude the presentation of other evidence which the parties may deem necessary to establish their case. It is merely an auxiliary remedy the law affords the parties or the court to reach an enlightened determination,” the court said.
Quiboloy is also wanted in the United States for “conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion,” and “sex trafficking of children,” among other charges.
Last January, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reposted on social media a wanted notice from 2021, when a federal arrest warrant was issued against the pastor.
Along with Quiboloy, five other KOJC officials are charged with human trafficking before the Pasig RTC, namely Jackielyn Roy, Sylvia Cemañes, and siblings Ingrid, Cresente and Paulene Canada.
Quiboloy and the others are also accused of sexual abuse and maltreatment in a separate case being heard in Quezon City.
