MANILA, Philippines — At a Senate meeting on Wednesday, former followers of an arrested Filipino televangelist confronted him and said he sexually abused them over and over again while telling them it was their religious duty to the “appointed son of God.”
Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who was brought to the Senate with a lot of cops around him, denied the claims made by several women, some from the Philippines and some from Ukraine. He told those who were accusing him to file criminal charges against him so he could go to court with them.
The 74-year-old priest said he couldn’t talk about his answer because he was already facing criminal charges in two Philippine courts for sexually abusing women and trafficking people.
Yulya Voronina told the Senate meeting from Ukraine through a video link that Quiboloy and his top staff lied to her and other victims about their religion to get them to agree to have sex with him.
“They always used the Bible to get us to do it,” she said, adding that at least nine other Ukrainian women joined Quiboloy’s group, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is based in Davao, Philippines, in the south.
The women took steps to keep from being sexually abused, but Voronina said Quiboloy could get into their rooms in the huge church complex and that his staff also helped force them to give up their freedom.
Quíboloy would tell you, “You will go to hell” if you said, “I don’t want.” Voronina added. “They will punish us, call us, scold us in a meeting, and make us feel bad because they did everything for us and said we weren’t thankful.”
She was able to get away in the end and went back to Ukraine.
Filipina Teresita Valdehueza told the Senate that she joined Quiboloy’s church when she was 17 years old because she had a strong faith. She respected him for a long time, but she also said that he sexually abused her and three other Filipino women she knew who had slept with him. This happened in a hotel in the Philippines.
A shocked Valdehueza said that Quiboloy “violated me with his lustful act that left me in shock.” She said that he told her after the attack, “This is the fulfillment of God’s revelation.”
The meeting was led by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who said, “Quiboloy behaved like a god and slowly took over the minds and bodies of his victims.” He “oversaw a malicious and systematic subversion of personal will, autonomy, and dignity. He made his victims take part in their own psychological, sexual, physical, and financial abuse.”
Philippine police officers who are examining Quiboloy told senators that he may have abused up to 200 women over many years, including 68 women who have been identified as having been abused sexually.
In addition to the criminal charges he is facing in two Philippine courts, Quiboloy may have to answer to more criminal complaints, according to police. During the Senate meeting, police said that Quiboloy’s organization had an armed group that may have broken the law.
Quiboloy was once one of the most famous religious televangelists in the Philippines. He backed President Rodrigo Duterte’s winning 2016 campaign. The International Criminal Court is now looking into Duterte’s deadly crackdown on drugs as a possible crime against humanity.
In answer to a question, Quiboloy told the Senate that his church has around 7 million followers and members all over the world. Police, on the other hand, said that his claim was not true and that he has less than 8,000 fans in the Philippines and other countries.
Early this year, Quiboloy ran away after a court in the Philippines ordered his arrest and the arrests of several others on charges of sexual and physical abuse of children and trafficking of people. Separately, the Philippine Senate told the police to arrest him for not showing up to hearings where the accusations were being looked into.
Similar criminal charges were brought against him in the United States, where federal prosecutors charged him and two of his top managers in 2021. There were many charges in the extended indictment, such as conspiracy, sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, marriage fraud, money laundering, cash smuggling, and visa fraud.
In November 2021, a federal warrant for Quiboloy’s arrest was issued in the United States. He was then put on the FBI’s most-wanted list and his picture was printed on signs of wanted criminals that were sent all over the world.
The Senate meeting heard from Enrique Manalo, the Philippine’s foreign secretary. He said that the US has not yet asked for Quiboloy’s extradition. The preacher said that the U.S. government was working with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to hurt him, but the Philippine leader rejected the claim.
Source: Arrested Philippine televangelist confronted in the Senate by women he’s accused of sexually abusing
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