Pastor Apollo Quiboloy. - Philippine Daily Inquirer file
MANILA: The Court of Appeals (CA) on Thursday (Aug 8) said it had imposed a 20-day freeze order on televangelist Apollo Quiboloy’s bank accounts, real estate properties and other assets after it found merit in the sexual exploitation, human trafficking and financial smuggling cases filed against the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) church.
The Aug. 6 freeze order, which is effective immediately, covers Quiboloy’s 10 bank accounts with Banco De Oro and Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. and seven real estate properties located in Davao del Norte, Davao City, Davao Oriental, Mati and Roxas City.
The freeze includes five vehicles and one private plane owned by the fugitive pastor.
The order also covers KOJC, Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), and 10 other individuals that were allegedly also involved in Quiboloy’s unlawful activities.
Also ordered frozen were 47 bank accounts, 16 real properties in the provinces of Laguna, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental and Iloilo, and in Quezon City and the cities of Davao, Tagbilaran, Mandaue and Butuan, and 16 vehicles of KOJC.
This also freezes SMNI’s 17 bank accounts, five real estate properties (located in Cagayan, Isabela, and Cabanatuan and Makati cities), and 26 vehicles.
Other respondents whose assets also were frozen were members of KOJC and Quiboloy’s affiliated companies, namely; Maria Teresita Dandan; Helen Pagaduan Panilag; Paulene Chavez Canada; Cresente Chavez Canada; Ingrid Chavez Canada; Sylvia Calija Cemañes; Jackielyn Wong Roy; Alona Mertalla Santander; Marlon Bongas Acobo; and the Children’s Joy Foundation Inc.
The CA ruled in favor of an Aug 5 petition by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to freeze Quiboloy’s assets.
Court action hailed
Sen. Risa Hontiveros lauded the CA’s decision and thanked AMLC for its move.
“Deserve,” she said in a statement. “That should happen to people like Quiboloy who’s extremely greedy.”
“Hopefully, this freezes Quiboloy’s ability to escape. Hopefully also, our local entities can work with their foreign counterparts to stanch the flow of money to offshore accounts,” she said.
Hontiveros noted that this was the second freezing of Quiboloy’s bank accounts after the ones in the United States.
In 2022, the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) blocked all transactions of Quiboloy, KOJC and other properties within US territory, effectively freezing their assets.
Hontiveros believes that the CA’s move is a step toward achieving justice for the victims of Quiboloy and his cohorts.
“He exploited the faith and goodwill of many Filipinos—from the minors who were forced to beg on the streets to the overseas Filipino workers who work hard in other countries just so they can provide money to KOJC,” she said.
“It’s the end of Quiboloy’s indulgence. We will not stand idly by while scammers and con artists prey on hardworking Filipinos,” Hontiveros added.
Quiboloy, the self-proclaimed “appointed son of God,” was one of 40 individuals and entities in nine countries sanctioned for corruption and human rights abuse by the US Treasury Department in December 2022.
Religious empire
Ofac did not give an estimate of the value of Quiboloy’s US assets but it was reported that he lost control of some of the prime assets of his religious empire, including a Cessna Citation Sovereign, a private aircraft with a current market value of US$18 million, a Bell 429 helicopter worth US$6.4 million, several luxury cars, and real estate holdings, such as a million-dollar mansion that he allegedly owns in Calabasas, California, where America’s rich and famous live.
He also owned houses in Las Vegas, Nevada and in Kapolei, Hawaii, as well as the main headquarters of KOJC in the United States located in Van Nuys, California.
According to US federal investigators, around $20 million was sent back to the church in the Philippines from the US from 2014 to mid-2019.
KOJC has over 7 million followers in 200 countries and 2,000 cities, according to Quiboloy’s own website.
The Senate had ordered Quiboloy’s arrest and detention for refusing to testify in its inquiry into the allegations against him.
AMLC said that Quiboloy was involved in the trafficking of KOJC workers who were subjected to sexual exploitation, forced labor, involuntary servitude and that KOJC members were sent to the United States to solicit money supposedly for underprivileged children.
It said that the KOJC workers also smuggled money.
The court took note of the findings of AMLC that Quiboloy’s bank accounts and real and personal properties “became the channels of the proceeds of the unlawful activities” in 330 of his financial transactions from 2006 to 2022.
The CA said there were “huge cash deposits” made to Quiboloy’s bank accounts, which appeared to have come from “unlawful activities of Quiboloy, his cohorts and his church.”
Peak transaction
Quiboloy’s annual transactions peaked at P89 million in 2015. On Feb. 25, 2014, P15 million was deposited into one of his accounts and was withdrawn several days.
Some of the sources of the funds were “suspended and delinquent affiliated companies” that couldn’t “legally generate income,” it said.
Quiboloy used so-called full-time miracle workers (FTMWs) of KOJC, many of whom were children, to beg for money in the streets and meet “daily quotas,” according to the CA.
The money they raised financed “KOJC operations and the lavish lifestyle of KOJC leaders, including Quiboloy,” it said.
One of the FTMWs started soliciting money when she was 12 years old.
When she turned 17 in 2014, she was “elevated” to the position of “close-in pastoral” to Quiboloy to perform domestic tasks. The pastor allegedly later raped her.
Selected girls and young women age 12 to 25 who worked as his personal assistants or pastorals allegedly “engaged in sexual intercourse with Quiboloy on a schedule” set by him and Maria Teresita Dandan, the court said.
Some of them were forced to perform this “night duty” under threat of physical and verbal abuse, and “eternal damnation.”
The CA took note of the pending cases against him in a California court, including conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking, marriage fraud, misuse of visas, bulk cash smuggling and international promotional money laundering.
The 48-page freeze ruling of the CA’s Special Third Division was authored by Associate Justice Gabriel Robeniol. Associate Justices Ramon Bato Jr. and Mary Charlene Hernandez-Azura concurred. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
[with reports from Tina G. Santos and Inquirer Research]
