MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sees nothing wrong with putting up a multimillion-peso reward for anyone who can give vital information that would lead to the arrest of fugitive doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy.
Quiboloy’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio had called “discriminatory” the P10-million bounty on the Kingdom of Jesus Christ founder’s head, and questioned the motives of private individuals who offered the reward.
“Bakit hindi (Why not)? They want to help us bring a fugitive to justice. You know, he is a fugitive. He is hiding from the law,” Marcos told reporters after the impounding process ceremony of the Upper Wawa Dam in Rizal on Wednesday, July 10.
“Now, if there are private citizens who want to assist the government in that effort to bring him to justice…he can question their motives…but magpakita siya (he should show himself),” the President added.
Quiboloy has been included in the most wanted list of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation after a federal grand jury in the US indicted him and eight of his associates in 2021 over allegations of labor trafficking.
Here at home, two trial courts have separately ordered the arrest of Quiboloy since March for child abuse, sexual abuse, and human trafficking. The Senate also issued a similar order against him for “unduly refusing to appear” in the upper chamber’s inquiry into his alleged human rights abuses.
Quiboloy has refused to surrender, and has even demanded that Marcos assure him in writing that the US government won’t meddle in his case.
On top of the P10-million bounty on Quiboloy’s head, authorities also announced a P1-million bounty each for the arrest of Quiboloy’s five associates: siblings Ingrid, Cresente, and Paulene Canada, Jackielyn Roy, and Sylvia Cemañes.
All five of them surrendered in March after a Davao court ordered their detention, but they were able to post bail. When a Pasig City court ordered them arrested too for a human trafficking charge –a non-bailable offense – no one turned themselves in.
– Rappler.com