MANILA, Philippines — A Pasig regional trial court has junked the petition to have Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader Apollo Quiboloy placed under “hospital arrest” at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Davao City.
Israelito Torreon, Quiboloy’s lead counsel, said yesterday that the court’s Branch 159 denied the motion for hospital arrest they filed in September due to the KOJC leader’s existing medical condition.
“We received this morning an order denying it,” Torreon told reporters in an interview on the sidelines of a pre-trial conference at the Pasig court.
“Yes the judge denied our motion, though the judge clarified during our hearing this afternoon that we can coordinate with the warden of Camp Crame Custodial Center if there is an urgent need for Pastor Apollo Quiboloy to be brought to the hospital. But only that it should be with the PNP General Hospital within Camp Crame,” he added in a message to The STAR.
Torreon said they intend to ask the court to reconsider its decision.
Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo, Philippine National Police (PNP) public information officer, said they have yet to receive an update about the court proceedings.
She declined to reveal the results of the medical examination conducted by the PNP Health Service on Quiboloy who is accused of qualified human trafficking at the Pasig court and child and sex abuse cases at a Quezon City court.
“I don’t have personal confirmation with respect to the court ruling on the medical findings submitted by the PNP,” Fajardo said in a news briefing at Camp Crame.
Quiboloy remains detained at the PNP Custodial Center at Camp Crame over a month after he was arrested on Sept. 8 at the KOJC compound in Davao City.
No nuisance bet
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia said Quiboloy might still run as independent candidate for senator after the Workers and Peasants Party (WPP), which supposedly nominated his senatorial bid, disowned the KOJC leader.
Garcia said Quiboloy cannot be declared a “nuisance candidate” even if the WPP denied him party membership.
Quiboloy is still included in the partial official list of aspirants qualified to run in the Senate race, he added.
“If the person’s candidacy is questioned by his own party, he can still run as an independent candidate,” Garcia said, noting that 17 of 66 aspirants qualified to run for senator are independent candidates.
He added that the Comelec is unlikely to declare Quiboloy a nuisance simply because of the submission of a fake certificate of nomination and acceptance (CONA).
“Just because the nomination was removed he is now considered a nuisance? The answer is no because (the CONA) is not basis and ground for declaring someone a nuisance candidate,” Garcia explained in Filipino.
WPP president Sonny Matula earlier filed before the Comelec a petition seeking to declare Quiboloy a nuisance candidate and to disqualify him from the Senate race for misrepresenting himself as a party member.
Garcia said the Comelec still has to look into this complaint of misrepresentation and that it intends to resolve all pending nuisance cases before the end of November or before the printing of ballots in December.
Unless those declared nuisance would be able to secure a temporary restraining order from the Supreme Court, Garcia said their names will not be included on the official ballots.
Quiboloy lawyer, 11 others face sedition
The police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) filed sedition and inciting to sedition complaints against Torreon, two hosts of Sonshine Media Network International and nine others before the Department of Justice yesterday.
CIDG chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III led the filing of the complaints against Torreon, Lorraine Badoy (who previously served as spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict), Jeffrey Celiz, Eleanor Cardona, Carlo Catil, Kathleen Kaye Laurente, Trinidad Arafol, Lord Byron Cristobal, Joey Espina Sun, Esteban Lava, Jose Lim III and lawyer Marie Dinah Tolentino-Fuentes.
Torre alleged that the 12 committed sedition and inciting to sedition when they hindered police operatives from serving arrest warrants against Quiboloy inside the KOJC compound in Davao City last month.
“The government is serving a warrant of arrest against five fugitives and they prevented us from doing so. That is (qualified for) sedition and inciting sedition. We alleged (in the complaint) that they called on the people to rise against the government, prevent the police from serving the warrant of arrest and many others,” Torre told reporters.
The complaint also alleged that the 12, along with KOJC supporters and members, barricaded the compound’s gate and “manifested their opposition to the conduct” of the police operation.
Vehicles of KOJC members and supporters likewise barricaded the highway and attacked members of the police’s Civil Disturbance Unit (CDM).
Protesters also threw plastic chairs and stones at the CDM contingents, sprayed fire extinguishers and mocked the police officers.
Under the Revised Penal Code, sedition is committed when people rise “publicly and tumultuously” to prevent the government from exercising its functions, among others. Inciting to sedition is committed when people, without taking any direct part in the crime of sedition, “incite others to the accomplishment of any of the acts which constitute sedition.” – Mayen Jaymalin, Daphne Galvez