Why getting Quiboloy is critical for the Marcos-Romualdez clan
ONLY if you have been living on another planet would you believe that the Philippine National Police (PNP) a few days ago had mobilized 2,000 policemen and raided religious leader Apollo Quiboloy’s compound merely in order to uphold the rule of law by serving warrants for his arrest. The army general in charge of Eastern Mindanao even announced the other day that “four companies” of soldiers — about 800 — would help hunt for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader in the religious organization’s compound near Davao City.
Nothing of this scale has ever happened to hunt down a fugitive, certainly not in the case of former prisons head Gerald Bantag, accused of killing the hard-hitting broadcast journalist Percy Lapid, or in the case of former congressman Arnolfo Teves, the alleged mastermind in the killing of governor Roel Degamo and nine other innocent people who happened to be in the politician-rival’s front yard waiting to get government cash grants.
The massive campaign to get Quiboloy is a key move on the part of the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration to totally dismantle the opposition led by former president Rodrigo Duterte, as this would cut off the religious leader’s finances and mass support from the Dutertes.
By the midterm elections in May 2025, the Marcos regime can put all of its politicians in the Senate and even the House of Representatives. With such control of Congress, Marcos would then be able to get it to amend the Constitution toward changing the system of government to a parliamentary one, in which his cousin Martin Romualdez or he himself will be prime minister.
There is a geopolitical dimension to Marcos’ move to arrest this popular religious leader. Sara, former president Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter who won the vice presidency in 2022 with 600,000 more votes than Marcos, is a shoo-in for the presidency when the dictator’s son steps down in 2028.
After successfully installing nine military camps in the country, thanks to President Aquino III and Marcos Jr., the Americans are extremely worried that Sara would reverse the current president’s puppetry to the US. Especially as Xi Jinping is believed to want to invade its rogue province as his legacy, preventing Sara’s election as president is an imperative for the Americans. What’s going on for them is that the dictator DNA appears to run strong in the Marcos-Romualdez clan that the latter will move heaven and earth to remain in power.
Ally
Quiboloy — a boyhood friend of the former president — has been the most powerful ally of Duterte, helping him to win the presidency in 2016. He contributed substantially to the campaign funds of Duterte, who had been shunned by most of the Manila-based elite. Quiboloy’s followers — at least 200,000 active — became committed campaigners for Duterte. Quiboloy’s Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) broadcast network reached all over the country at that time.
Even after President Marcos Jr. turned against Duterte, among other means by mobilizing the bumbling putschist Sonny Trillanes IV to revive the propaganda against Duterte over his alleged human rights violations during his rule, including in those accusations his former police chief, now senator Ronaldo “Bato” de la Rosa, as well as his former special assistant, now senator Bong Go.
Quiboloy has remained loyal to Duterte, with his SMNI becoming the sole broadcast media that criticizes Marcos for his blunders and puppetry to the US.
On Dec, 23, 2023, the Marcos camp got the National Telecommunications Commission to order the SMNI to cease operations on flimsy grounds. It was the House of Representatives’ turn to be Marcos’ puppet when it revoked SMNI’s franchise in March 2024. Undaunted, SMNI has continued to operate through internet platforms, mainly as a YouTube channel.
Charges
All of the charges against Quiboloy — mainly sex and human trafficking — were made by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and filed in a US court. These charges were only publicly disclosed on Nov. 18, 2021, but sources claim they were investigated months before.
Quiboloy’s lawyers have claimed that the complainants were formerly members of the KOJC living illegally in America, who were coerced into making false testimonies against Quiboloy in exchange for dropping charges to lead to their deportation.
Sources claimed that the charges were made at that time by US strategists to convince or frighten Quiboloy not to support Sara Duterte’s initial plan to run for the presidency. The US feared that if Sara ran and won the presidency, she would follow in the footsteps of her father in ridding the country of its puppetry to the Americans.
However, Sara agreed to be Marcos Jr.’s running mate as vice president on Nov. 13, 2021. Her father’s endorsement of the Marcos-Sara ticket was crucial in its victory, with a crucial number of voters for voting.
Unity
The cases against Quiboloy were practically forgotten during the “unity” government of Marcos and Sara. However, this unity broke up early this year.
While a source of irritation was the total disregard by the Marcos government of Sara’s recommendation for posts in government, what broke the camel’s back, as it were, was the Marcos camp’s launching in January, spearheaded by Speaker Martin Romualdez, of a plot to change the Constitution, disguised as a “People’s Initiative for Reform, Modernization and Action” on the Constitution.
The Dutertes, of course, saw through the scheme, and concluded that the Marcoses were planning to change the system of government to a parliamentary one to prevent Sara from becoming president when Marcos Jr. ends his term in 2028.
Tensions escalated in early 2024 when Sara’s father, the former president, publicly accused Marcos of being a “drug addict,” while Marcos retaliated with similar accusations against him. This public mudslinging, along with concerns about Sara being sidelined in the administration and Marcos’ secret support of the International Criminal Court’s investigation into Duterte’s drug war, deepened the rift.
Breakup
The breakup was effectively sealed when Sara resigned from her Cabinet position in June 2024, citing “political toxicity” and a lack of alignment with the administration’s direction.
Marcos practically pushed out Sara, as the PNP with 200 men tried on June 10 to arrest Quiboloy at his Davao compound, without even informing her and her brother Sebastian, who after all was Davao City mayor. Quiboloy however managed to elude the policemen.
Police Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, who was appointed Davao police chief two weeks earlier, apparently suspecting that Quiboloy was tipped off by the city’s policemen or even by its officials, sacked the city’s 19 station commanders, and in a blatant show of force, led a raid on Quiboloy’s compound on August 24 with 2,000 policemen.
Sources claimed that with the raiding team were people wearing different uniforms, who even searched cabinets and shoeboxes, in which it would be impossible for a person to hide. The sources claimed they were obviously looking for valuables or cash that might have been left by the KOJC officials whom the PNP ordered to immediately vacate the buildings in the compound. Or rather, the sources asked, were these special teams embedded by the higher-ups who were looking for cash that Quiboloy might have hidden in the compound?
There has been no such police raid on a religious organization’s headquarters in our history, except when troops of Marcos’ father the dictator, attacked in the wee hours of Sept. 23, 1972, the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) headquarters in Quezon City in order to close that church’s radio station. The INC’s security guards resisted, resulting however in only a few casualties. Marcos Jr. is eerily repeating his father’s history.
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Why getting Quiboloy is critical for the Marcos-Romualdez clan
Source: Breaking News PH
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