CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – The Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms has served a subpoena to Davao-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader Apollo Quiboloy in connection with a Senate investigation into allegations of human trafficking, sexual abuse, violence, and other abuses against the preacher and his group.

The subpoena was received by one of Quiboloy’s lawyers from Davao, Marie Dinah Tolentino-Fuentes, at 1:30 pm on Thursday, February 22.

A copy of the document showed that the self-styled preacher, who proclaimed himself as the “appointed son of God,” was “commanded and required to appear” before a Senate committee chaired by Senator Risa Hontiveros at 10 am on March 5.

The Senate committee on women, children, family relations, and gender equality has scheduled its third hearing on the alleged abuses in the KOJC on March 5.

The subpoena was issued based on provisions in the Senate’s rules of procedures governing inquiries in aid of legislation.

The Senate sergeant-at-arms served the subpoena a day after Hontiveros warned that she would cite Quiboloy in contempt and have him arrested if he failed to show up at the March 5 Senate hearing.

Hontiveros’ warning was in response to Quiboloy’s statement, through an audio recording, that circulated on social media that he was in hiding because of a supposed plot to abduct and assassinate him. The recording circulated on Facebook and was also posted on the YouTube page of Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), the media arm of KOJC.

Responding to Quiboloy’s statement, Hontiveros said, “Our next hearing is on March 5, and if Mr. Quiboloy does not show up, I will cite him in contempt and have him arrested.”

She brushed aside Quiboloy’s assassination and conspiracy theories, warning him that defiance would have serious consequences.

In the recording, Quiboloy alleged that his constitutional rights were being violated and that he and other KOJC leaders had been marked for assassination by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Responding to the preacher’s pronouncements, the US embassy in Manila said, “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.”

Quiboloy and several of his church associates have been wanted in the US since late 2021, after they were indicted by a federal grand jury in the District Court for the Central District of California for sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, sex trafficking of children, marriage fraud, fraud and misuse of visas, bulk cash smuggling, promotional money laundering, concealment money laundering, and international promotional money laundering. – Rappler.com