CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – “Hindi ako magpapahuli nang buhay (I will not be caught alive).” 

Fugitive doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy broke his silence on Saturday morning, April 6, to once again accuse the Marcos administration of conspiring with the United States in an alleged assassination plot against him.

Wanted in connection with child abuse and sexual abuse cases in Davao City, Quiboloy broke down towards the end of a nearly 33-minute audio recording posted by the media arm of the Quiboloy-led Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) on YouTube.

“Tandaan po ninyo: Ako’y mamamatay with honor. Tatayo ako para sa mga ginipit, kinunan ng katarungan, kinunan ng hustisya sa bansang ito. Dito tutulo ang aking dugo. Dito ako mamamatay. Bahala na, basta Pilipino ang papatay sa akin. OK sa akin iyon,” Quiboloy said, his voice cracking.

(Remember this: I will die with honor. I will stand for the oppressed, those deprived of justice, and those deprived of fairness in this country. Here, my blood will be shed. Here, I will die. Let it be, as long as it’s a Filipino who kills me. That’s OK with me.)

Quiboloy released the statement three days after the National Bureau of Investigation and the police initiated a search to serve two arrest warrants issued by a Davao regional court against him and five of his associates. Of the six accused, Quiboloy remains the only one at large.

“Ako po ay hindi nagtatago sa kasong ito dahil ako po ay may kasalanan. Hindi po. Ako ay umiiwas dahil pinoprotektahan ko ang aking sarili,” he said

(I am not hiding from this case because I am guilty. No. I am avoiding it because I am protecting myself.)

Quiboloy said he would confront his accusers and respond to their allegations in court only if the US would keep off.

The preacher alleged that US authorities intended to kidnap or kill him rather than extradite him for trial in an American court without specifying why the US would want him dead.

Quiboloy also claimed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had agreed to hand him over to the Americans, suggesting that recent actions by the Senate and the House of Representatives against him and his group were part of the alleged US strategy. He did not say how exactly he learned of this, but he stated that the purported US plot was confirmed by his lawyers.

Wanted in the US, Quiboloy has been placed on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) list of most wanted after he and several of his associates were indicted by a federal grand jury in a California district court in 2021 for a series of cases including sex trafficking, fraud and coercion, misuse of visas, bulk cash smuggling, and money laundering.

Quiboloy asserted that his decision not to surrender was “wisdom from God” aimed at protecting him. 

“I am preserving myself,” said the controversial preacher, who styles himself as the “appointed son of God.”

He also said he would only appear in court on condition that Marcos, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, and heads of various law enforcement agencies would guarantee in writing that the US would not be involved in any manner and that he would not get killed.

Another condition for his surrender, according to Quiboloy, is if the Senate committee chaired by Senator Risa Hontiveros would cease its ongoing investigation into the alleged abuses committed against former KOJC workers.

He accused the former KOJC workers who testified against him before Hontiveros’ committee of being paid to lie and fabricate stories against him.

It was not the first time for Quiboloy to hurl such accusations against the US, particularly the FBI, the US Central Intelligence Agency or CIA, and the Marcos administration.

Responding to it in late February, Marcos laughed off the alleged assassination plot against the preacher, and asked: “Hindi ko naiintindihan ‘yung sinasabi niya. Bakit siya i-assassinate (I can’t understand what he’s saying. Why will he be assassinated)?”

That same month, the US embassy in Manila also stated: “For more than a decade, Apollo Quiboloy engaged in serious human rights abuses, including a pattern of systemic and pervasive rape of girls as young as 11 years old, and he is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. We are confident that Quiboloy will face justice for his heinous crimes.” – Rappler.com