Sen. Imee Marcos said on Wednesday, March 6, that she will join Sen. Robinhood Padilla in overturning the contempt order made against Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
"Kasi parang hindi naman siya tama (I just think it's not right)," she said in a press conference.
Marcos mentioned that Sen. Christopher "Bong" Go and Sen. Cynthia Villar might also join them. A total of eight votes is needed to withdraw the contempt order.
Asked on why she objects to the contempt order, Marcos said that they do not want to bombard Quiboloy who she said is currently facing a great deal of cases.
"They have the rights to due process, they have a right defend themselves, and against self-incrimination. Yung ibang akusasyon eh napakatagal na bakit ngayon lang lumiltaw nang sabay-sabay baka naman may nasa likod ng lahat ng ito (Some of the accusations were from long time ago and are surfacing altogether all of a sudden, maybe someone is behind this), she said.
"Kaya gusto natin bigyan siya ng pagkakataon, higit sa lahat ang pagkakaintindi ko mayroon na rin mga kaso na pinila sa korte. Kaya't siguro huminahon tayo at huwag naman natin inaapi ang tao (We want to give him a chance, and more than that, from what I understand, there are cases pending before the court. So let's take a step back and let's not pick on him)," she added.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality cited in contempt and requested the arrest of Quiboloy after skipping the latest hearing on the investigation of the human trafficking, sexual abuses, and forced labor allegations hurled against him.
Quiboloy's lawyer, Atty. Melanio Elvis Balayan sent a letter to the committee stating: "compelling Pastor Quiboloy to appear before a committee that already pronounced him guilty would be violative of his constitutional right against self-incrimination and to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty."
However, Hontiveros said that if they would allow witnesses of the Senate to simply claim that appearing before a committee would violate his or her constitutional right to be presumed innocent and his or her right against self-incrimination, the Senate would lose its power to conduct investigations and it would be easy for corrupt officials to evade hearings of the Blue Ribbon Committee and investigations of the Public Order Committee involved in crime.
"Hindi po uubra ang ganitong mga excuse (These excuses won't work)," Hontiveros said.
However, Sen. Robinhood Padilla objected to the decision of the committee to cite Quiboloy in contempt but he did not state his reason.
Hontiveros said that a majority of all members of the committee may reverse or modify the aforesaid order of contempt within seven days.