Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy accused the United States of being ‘one-sided’ for possessing a ‘narrow-bigoted view of the world’, over the weekend.
Quiboloy made this assertion in an audio recording released on Facebook Saturday evening in response to a statement from the US Embassy in Manila that it is confident that the religious leader would face justice for the crimes he is accused of by the American government.
“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,” the US Embassy said.
On Saturday, the KOJC leader singled out embassy’s spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay in his message.
“This is my answer, Kanishka Gangopadhyay. I presumed that you are a very educated man. I am sure that you know a little about jurisprudence, and I am sure also that you have read somewhere this narrative that says, “The law heareth before it condemns,” said Quiboloy.
“The accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a competent court of law,” the KOJC leader stressed.
Quiboloy said that in a competent court of law, the judge hears the argument of both the accuser and the accused before issuing a verdict of guilty or not guilty.
“In our Philippine justice system, which was copied from yours, it says, “the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a competent court of law.” But in your statement, you sound like you changed the formula, that’s why monologue doesn’t win debates and a one-sided coin won’t buy a piece of cheap candy,” the Davao City-based preacher noted.
The KOJC head reminded Gangopadhyay that “lynching and kangaroo courts are long banned and abhorred in modern civil societies because it results in gross human rights abuses and violations causing millions of innocent people, women and children dead, just like your war in Iraq.”
Quiboloy also said that intentionally wrong, deceptive presentation serves as weapons of mass destruction, resulting in the death of millions of people.
“As a spokesperson of the US Embassy, I believe that you also represent this US government’s narrow-bigoted view of the world. It’s very scary,” he said.
In December 2023, a United States court set a new date for the trial for the criminal cases of Quiboloy to November 5, 2024.
The proceedings are for the charges of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, coercion, and sex trafficking of children, marriage fraud, fraud and misuse of visas, bulk cash smuggling, promotional money laundering, and international promotional money laundering.
In an earlier recording, Quiboloy accused the US government of trying to ‘eliminate’ him.
In the Philippines, both the Senate and the House of Representatives issued subpoenas for Quiboloy after the religious leader skipped the separate congressional hearings on the alleged abuses being linked to his religious group as well as controversies surrounding calls to revoke the franchise of Swara Sug Media Corporation. SSMC runs and operates Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), a broadcast network thatQuiboloy is supposedly connected to in an ownership capacity.
Quiboloy earlier said that he will not submit himself to the Senate inquiry into the allegations of sexual abuse made by former members of his religious organization against him.
He said would only face the allegations against him before the courts.—RF, GMA Integrated News
