Several videos are circulating on social media claiming that Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) leader Apollo Quiboloy has been acquitted of his alleged crimes due to “weak evidence.” This is not true.
Published on March 9, the videos’ thumbnails made similar untrue statements. One thumbnail carried the text:
“CASE CLOSED NA! MAHINA ANG EBIDENSYA NA HAWAK (The case is closed! The evidence held is weak)”
Another text of a different video thumbnail read: “PASTOR QUIBOLOY ABSWELTO NA (Pastor Quiboloy has been acquitted)”
These are false. The videos provided no evidence to support the thumbnails’ claim and only showed the same one-hour clip of former Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles defending before the Senate a rally organized by KJC members in support of their leader.
The investigation into the KJC leader’s alleged crimes is still ongoing.
On March 5, Sen. Risa Hontiveros – chair of the Senate Committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality – cited Quiboloy in contempt and ordered his arrest for skipping the probe of his alleged cases of human trafficking and sexual abuses. However, some senators, led by Sen. Robin Padilla, wanted to block the motion.
Hontiveros and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri later issued a show-cause order against Quiboloy, giving the pastor 48 hours to give a reason why he should not be arrested and detained for his repeated absence.
These erroneous videos continued to gain traction days before KJC members held another prayer rally on March 12 at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila. Vice President Sara Duterte, former President Rodrigo Duterte and several senators also attended the rally.
YouTube channels NEWSFILES (created on Dec. 12, 2012) and XCREW (March 18, 2014), and Facebook pages Bayan mo ph TV (Nov. 6, 2019) and Somparani6 (June 16, 2023) published the videos. They collectively garnered over 133,300 views and 3,000 interactions.
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)