Letting Quiboloy do campaign video reeks of VIP treatment–Selda
A group of former political prisoners denounced the “VIP treatment” authorities had extended to detained televangelist and now senatorial candidate Apollo Quiboloy.
They particularly protested the permission given to Quiboloy to record and release a campaign video for his Feb. 11 proclamation rally at Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.
Quiboloy, founder of the sect Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), is charged with two counts of human trafficking before a Pasig court and another two counts of child abuse before a Quezon City court. He is also wanted in the United States for alleged sex trafficking of children, conspiracy and bulk cash smuggling.
With his local cases still being heard, he was allowed to run for senator under the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), the party of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who counts Quiboloy among his most loyal allies.
In a statement on Friday, the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto, or Selda, asked why Quiboloy managed to do a campaign video despite the ban imposed by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) on the use of cameras, video equipment and mobile phones among detainees.
With court’s permission
“Quiboloy’s recorded message during his campaign’s kick-off activity smacks of VIP treatment,” Selda vice chair Danilo dela Fuente said in the statement.
Jail Supt. Jayrex Bustinera, spokesperson for the BJMP, explained on Thursday that Quiboloy secured permission on Feb. 7 from Judge Rainelda Estacio Montesa of Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 159 to make the recording.
At the time, Quiboloy was still confined at Pasig City General Hospital, where he was brought on Jan. 23 after being diagnosed with pneumonia and hypertension.
The KOJC leader was later allowed to transfer to a private hospital, The Medical City. He was discharged and brought back to Pasig City Jail on Feb. 15.
Dela Fuente said the leeway given to Quiboloy showed “double standard.”
The BJMP, he said, enforces “overly strict rules for poor detainees and political prisoners, and [allows] extra special treatment for moneyed, powerful and influential people like Quiboloy.”
Also for contrast, Selda recalled how the visitation rights of political prisoners at the Metro Manila District Jail 4 in Bicutan, Taguig City, were suspended after they wrote to Pope Francis about their “dismal conditions” in 2015.
The group also recalled how Mocha Uson, an entertainer who served in the Palace communications office during the Duterte administration, was allowed to do an interview at New Bilibid Prison with Jovito Palparan Jr., a retired Army general convicted of kidnapping two activists.
The interview was used by Uson to call for Palparan’s release, Selda said.
