Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) founder and Executive Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy will abide with the ruling of the Philippine court in the event the United States seeks his extradition to face charges in America, his lawyers assured on Sunday, Feb. 6.
“We will abide by whatever process is made,” lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, one of the legal counsels of KOJC, said during an interview over Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), Quiboloy’s broadcasting arm.
“If the court says that he has to be extradited then we will follow what the law says,” he declared.
Topacio made the assurance after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released “wanted” posters of Quiboloy following a federal warrant that was issued against him last Nov. 10, 2021 over his grand jury indictment before the US District Court for the Central District of California, Santa Ana, California for alleged conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; conspiracy; and bulk cash smuggling.
“I think this is designed to humiliate and embarrass the pastor and the members of the Kingdom. This is a very despicable act,” Topacio decried.
He pointed out that Quiboloy is not in hiding and that “everyone knows where the pastor is.”
“There is no need to ask the public for information regarding the whereabouts of Pastor Quiboloy. That is only done when a person is actively a fugitive from justice and in hiding,” he explained.
“He is not within the jurisdiction of the United States. So bakit ang poster nasa Amerika e naririto siya (So why is the ‘wanted’ poster in the US when he is in the Philippines,” he stressed.
At the same time, Topacio said that while Quiboloy is close to President Duterte, “there is no need for the Chief Executive to step in since we are not asking the President for any special favors as there is no need to.”
“There are laws here and as long as those laws are faithfully complied with on a petition for extradition, should there be one, yun na po ang aming tutuparin (we will abide with that),” he assured.
He said that under US laws, the US State Department will be the one to make an extradition request before the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
“Once it is determined the request falls under any of the grounds cited in 1995 Extradition Treaty, the DFA will ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file an extradition petition before the regional trial court (RTC),” he said.
“The court (RTC) will hold a probable cause hearing to determine whether extradition can be allowed,” he also said.
Topacio declared that he and Quiboloy’s other lawyers will contest “not only the indictment but the necessity for extradition.”
Also during the interview, Hawaii-based American lawyer Michael Jay Green, KOJC general counsel, lamented the indictment of Quiboloy is based on the lies of “14 dissidents led by a man named Shishir Bhandari, his wife Lady Jane Canada, her sister Pearl Canada.”
Bhandari is a Nepalese and a former member of the KOJC who previously worked as operations manager of Quiboloy’s Davao City-based airline company, Apollo Air.
Bhandari’s wife and sister-in-law previously worked for KOJC’s Jose Maria College Foundation, Inc.
“When they found out there was going to be an audit, they ran like thieves in the middle of the night,” Green said.
“Over a decade, not one bad word that you see in this indictment about the pastor by those people until they were found to be corrupt,” he said.
He also lamented that Bhandari’s testimony against Quiboloy has been “bought and paid for.”
At the same time, Green pointed out that Quiboloy was not given the opportunity to refute the allegations made by US prosecutors when they sought the indictment before the grand jury.
He said that under US procedures, US prosecutors need only the presence witnesses before the grand jury in securing an indictment.
“So they tell the grand jury their story. The pastor does not have the right to be present. His lawyers don’t have the right to cross examine those people and show the grand jurors that these people are lying to them,” he said.
In the Philippines, Topacio said that once a complaint has been filed, the prosecutor conducts adversarial proceedings and “the respondent is given an opportunity to file a counter-affidavit and adduce evidence on his/her behalf.”
The two lawyers also questioned the release of the “wanted” posters by the FBI.
Green said: “They waited 10 months to bring the superceeding indictment and that wasn’t by mistake. I am absolutely convinced why they waited to get as close to your elections as possible.”
Topacio, on the other hand, said “they are using the closeness of Pastor Quiboloy with President Duterte para gibain indiretly si Pangulong Duterte (to indirectly demolish Duterte).”
“Indirectly it is undermining the candidacy of Sara Duterte, indirectly maybe undermining the candidacy of Bongbong Marcos or whichever candidate the United States does not want to win in this country,” he said.
“This is just conjecture, of course, based on historical events wherein the United States has repeatedly and consistently interfered and intervened in the local and political affairs of a sovereign country that is the Philippines,” he noted.