“It is not a matter of religion. It is a matter of law; of crime and punishment as Fyodor Dostoevsky in his famous novel wrote”
THE self-styled “appointed son” thought his political support, magnified in voting numbers by his own theory of multiplication, would pay dividends.
It’s been an easy way to “massive” following and untold wealth since he started off being a soapbox preacher in the vicinity of Agdao market.
How he parlayed his own interpretation of the Bible into a Kingdom where he proclaimed himself the “appointed son of God” is a success story in itself, similar to Bernie Cornfeld who decades back told himself “he sincerely wants to be rich” and got people to invest in his ability to make them rich as well, until the roof fell upon him.
The late James Gaisano once entered Apollo’s “kingdom,” and, marveling at the expensive surroundings even of his airplane hangar, gawked and exclaimed “Pastor, ngano pa man mo-adto kita sa langit, nga mura na man og langit kini” (why do we need to go to heaven when your place looks like heaven already?).
A friend who was close to Bro. Mike Velarde of El Shaddai once told the other religious leader about a certain preacher from Davao who proclaimed to his followers that he was the “appointed son of God.”
Whereupon, Bro. Mike smiled and jokingly said, “Aba, pamangkin ko pala siya!” (Ah, so he is my nephew!).
This piece is not about mocking religious beliefs.
Though baptized as a Catholic, I am not one to impose my religion on others, not even my children.
One has embraced a Christian denomination to follow her husband; another is borderline agnostic following her European partner while another remains Catholic.
I recall my good friend, the late Archbishop Oscar Cruz, who, when told that my daughter was to be married in a Protestant church, said “mas mabuti pa silang Kristiyano kaysa karamihan sa atin.”
I miss the good old archbishop, as straight a shooter in his language as he was with rifles.
Nice that I am not from the archdiocese he last served before retirement. I do not quite like his successor, the re-incarnation of the political meddler whose name was Sin.
But enough of the trivia.
A believer of Pastor Quiboloy once said, after this administration started tightening the screws on SMNI and the “kingdom,” that the president has no sense of gratitude (“walang utang na loob”).
Indeed, SMNI gave candidate BbM a cozy platform when he refused to debate via the Comelec-sponsored debates.
I recall being bashed by his followers when I said my presidential candidate would not participate in SMNI debates and interviews because the pastor had declared support for BbM. I sneered and added, “ilan lang ba nakikinig sa SMNI” — said in a moment of pique.
I probably deserved their station manager’s opprobrium and the kingdom members’ disgust.
But “utang na loob,” though highly valued in our “damaged” culture, is likewise one of the barriers to good governance. It can be the mother of political misfits, whether elected or appointed.
Still, the “appointed son’s” predicaments are not about his religion.
It’s about accusations, true or not, that he committed crimes deemed grave whether in our benighted land or in the land of milk and honey.
Sex trafficking of children, money laundering, rape, fraud and coercion are charges too serious to be papered over by a sense of gratitude, though all these charges have to be proven in a court of law, not through interminable Senate hearings.
So let our courts now go through the process.
And let the US State Department, after receiving the extradition requests of the Attorney General, formally ask our Department of Foreign Affairs for custody of the “appointed son” to face its own criminal justice system.
Sec. Crispin Boying” Remulla has said as much, invoking “clausula pacta sunt servanda,” sustained by the president Quiboloy endorsed.
It is not a matter of religion. It is a matter of law; of crime and punishment as Fyodor Dostoevsky in his famous novel wrote.
But Dostoevsky wrote about an impoverished person fighting social injustice aimed at liberation from poverty, while Apollo Quiboloy has tons and tons of material wealth, using religion as source, or perhaps masquerade, and parlaying these into a fount of power.
One recalls how, in recent memory, he endorsed Gibo Teodoro who lost to his cousin Noynoy in 2010, and thought he hit the jackpot with PRRD in 2016, yet now faces the “politically incorrect” PBBM whom he supported in 2022.
Religion, said Karl Marx, is the “opium of the people,” but if the detractors of the current president are right, religion is not where he gets his high.
