Senator Robinhood “Robin” Padilla on Thursday, July 4 laughed off the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) move to hold former president Rodrigo Duterte for hiding televangelist Apollo Quiboloy’s location, saying the latter is possibly just teasing them.
Padilla, an ally of the Duterte family, said the PNP could ask the former leader to release a statement on the issue to ascertain whether or not he was serious about his statement.
“Nakakatawa naman yan (That’s funny),” Padilla said in an interview with Senate reporters when asked about the PNP's plan to hold Duterte liable for possible obstruction of justice.
“Ako nag-aral din ng criminology noong araw. Medyo wag naman tayo, sumobra naman tayo pagka ganoon nagsalita ang tao di mo alam kung nagbibiro ang tao o seryoso (I studied criminology before. Let’s not go overboard, that when a person says something like that, you don’t even know if the person is joking or serious),” Padilla said.
“Siguro ang pwede hingan diyan, hingan si ex-president ng, sabihin ano ba ang official statement ninyo kasi baka nagbibiro lang ang tao (Maybe what they could have done is ask the former president, like an official statement, because he may just be joking),” the senator explained.
Quiboloy is facing cases of child molestation, human trafficking, rape and sexual abuse. The trial courts of Davao and Pasig have issued arrest warrants against him.
The Supreme Court has also granted the DOJ’s bid to transfer Quiboloy’s case from a Davao court to a Quezon city court to thwart a possible miscarriage of justice.
The Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, which is also investigating Quiboloy on these issues, has also issued an arrest order against him.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa urged the PNP to study such move before enforcing it.
"The PNP's mandate is to enforce the law without fear or favor. They better study properly if such act constitutes the crime of obstruction of justice. Otherwise, it will not prosper in court," said Dela Rosa, a former PNP chief.
Del Rosa pointed out the former leader is also not being investigated by the police that is trying to locate Quiboloy.
"As far as I know, former president Duterte was not under a formal invesetigation by our authorities who are looking for the whereabouts of Pastor Quiboloy," the former top cop said.
"His statements might have been made out of pressure from persons bombarding him with such questions, implying he has personal knowledge of the pastor's activities," he pointed out.