Former Quiboloy foundation director links KOJC to 100 fake marriages in Canada

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Two new witnesses faced a Senate panel on Tuesday, March 5, with one alleging a link between the religious group led by embattled preacher Apollo Quiboloy and around 100 fraudulent marriages in Canada alone. 

The marriages were purportedly designed to go around Canada’s immigration laws and give legal status in that country to fundraising workers of the Davao-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), according to former KOJC member Dindo Maquiling, who once served as executive director for Canada and Australia of the Quiboloy group’s Children’s Joy Foundation (CFJ).

Maquiling, testifying online during the Senate panel’s inquiry into alleged abuses by Quiboloy and KOJC, revealed that he participated in a fraudulent marriage in 2013. He admitted to marrying another church worker solely because her visa was nearing expiration.

He said he was a victim and only agreed to the fraudulent marriage due to his sense of indebtedness, and concern for his two children who were in Davao City. Maquiling said he was already a Canadian citizen and divorced at the time.

“Hindi lang po ako ang biktima. Meron po’ng kulang-kulang na isang-daan na kasalan po dito sa ‘Kingdom’ ni Pastor Quiboloy na puro peke, dito lang ho sa Canada,” Maquiling said when asked by Senator Risa Hontiveros to elaborate on the alleged scam.

(I’m not the only victim. There were about a hundred marriages in Pastor Quiboloy’s ‘Kingdom’ that were all fake in Canada alone.)

Where’s the money going?

Maquiling also alleged that he discovered that the funds raised by the Quiboloy’s foundation did not go to needy children.

In his narrative, Maquiling said he became a KOJC volunteer worker following the devastation brought by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in 2013, to help Quiboloy’s group raise funds for victims of one of the most powerful tropical cyclones to ever hit the country in recent history. He said he used his connections in Canada where he worked as a store manager to help Quiboloy’s group.

In 2016, when he was appointed as the CJF-Canada executive director, Maquiling said he had a chance to go back to the Philippines and visit the CFJ shelter for the foundation’s supposed beneficiaries. That was the time, he said, when he found out that the children in the CFJ shelter were mostly young KOJC full-time workers, some of whom were then brought to other countries to become part of the church’s fundraising teams.

Although some of the foundation’s funds were spent to support needy children, these were merely a fraction of what the group has raised, he said.

“In fact, their claim was that thousands of children were being fed. Noong ako’y nandoon, wala pa nga’ng halos 300 na bata (When I was there, there were barely even 300 children),” he said.

That, he said, made him raise questions because he found out that much of the funds raised for the foundation were used for other purposes.

‘Month of blessings’

Maquiling and another former KOJC fundraising worker, Reynita Fernandez who spoke online from Singapore, showed their faces during the hearing. Fernandez, among the first former Quiboloy followers to speak out publicly, spoke to Rappler for a series of investigative reports on the KOJC in late 2021. 

Before the committee, she recounted her ordeal during the KOJC’s so-called “month of blessings,” which typically commences in September and lasts until March. 

During this period, Fernandez alleged, KOJC’s workers were compelled to intensify various fundraising activities for Quiboloy’s group.

“Mag-loan, mag-solicit, magtinda, everything that earns money. Kahit mag bali-balintong ka basta may money ka na ire-remit sa kanila,” said Fernandez, recalling that she lost her house because of this practice.

(We apply for loans, solicit donations, sell, and do anything just to raise money, even if it means you have to twist and turn, as long as you have money to remit to them.)

Fernandez, who once served as a leader of one of Quiboloy’s groups in Singapore, recalled when she was given a quota of SG$12,000 during the “month of blessings” period.

“They said if you’re in the ‘Kingdom,’ you need to have a thicker face to produce money. Otherwise, you are not a faithful son or daughter of the father,” she said.

She said, in many instances, even the salaries earned from regular work abroad were insufficient to meet the quotas.

Fernandez, however, said they were motivated to work harder because they believed Quiboloy’s promise that their dedication during the “month of blessings” would mean “10 years of blessings” in their and their families’ lives.

The funds, she added, were divided into smaller amounts and remitted to the Philippines through other KOJC members to escape the prying eyes of Singaporean authorities. Each remittance, according to Fernandez, should be less than the ceiling of SG$2,000 a day.

Fake employers

Fernandez also said there were KOJC workers in Singapore who sought fake employers to maintain legal residency in the country. Some, she added, even resorted to paying individuals in Singapore to pose as their employers.

“It’s really their strategy to stay here legally,” Fernandez told the Senate committee.

“Scammer si Apollo Quiboloy (Apollo Quiboloy is a scammer),” Hontiveros said before concluding Tuesday’s Senate panel hearing.

The narratives of the two witnesses were consistent with the cases filed against Quiboloy and several of his associates in the United States. In late 2021, they were indicted by a federal grand jury in California for marriage fraud, fraud and misuse of visas, bulk cash smuggling, and money laundering, among others.  – Rappler.com