Senate building (PNA file photo by Avito Dalan)
MANILA – Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy is facing arrest if he continues to ignore appearing before the Senate panel hearings, Senator Risa Hontiveros said Wednesday.
Hontiveros, Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family and Gender Equality chair, said Quiboloy's camp had received a show cause order from the Senate's Office of Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA). He has until Friday to give the Senate "a good reason" why he should not be arrested and detained.
"And if he doesn't speak or give a good reason, then the Senate President who signed the show cause order will instruct the OSAA to effect the arrest," she said.
Senator Robinhood Padilla, one of the five senators opposing Quiboloy's arrest, thanked Hontiveros for allowing due process by issuing the show cause order.
Padilla wrote Hontiveros earlier asking for consideration for Quiboloy, saying a witness or resource person who fails or refuses to appear before the Senate may be cited for contempt only after it has been determined that such failure or refusal is unreasonable or unwarranted and this aligns with no less than the 1987 Constitution.
"Indeed, while acknowledging the Committee's authority to cite Pastor Quiboloy, or any witness for that matter, in contempt for refusing to appear despite receipt of a subpoena, it is imperative to underscore that such citation is contingent upon the determination of an undue refusal to comply thereto," Padilla said in his letter.
"Readily declaring a prospective witness in contempt without providing an opportunity to explain noncompliance with an issued subpoena risks establishing a dangerous precedent, amounting to a potential violation of the witness' right to due process," he added.
He also requested Hontiveros' reconsideration on the matter and to "hold in abeyance the order of contempt and give way to the issuance of a show cause order against Pastor Quiboloy during the next committee hearing." (PNA)
