“(Risa’s) leadership showed that abuses committed under the cloak of spiritual authority must not escape accountability”
In December 2023, Senator Risa Hontiveros filed Senate Resolution 884, launching one of the most consequential inquiries in recent Senate history.
The resolution sought to investigate the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), the religious empire of televangelist Apollo Quiboloy.
For decades, Quiboloy had been shadowed by allegations of human trafficking, sexual abuse, and child exploitation, all cloaked in the language of faith.
Hontiveros made clear the probe was about both accountability and legislation, to test whether current anti-trafficking and child protection laws could confront crimes shielded by religion.
As chair of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality, Hontiveros opened the hearings on Jan. 23, 2024. Quiboloy defied multiple summonses.
A subpoena was issued in February, followed by a show-cause order in March, with Hontiveros warning she would seek to cite him for contempt. Some senators called her actions excessive, but she defended them as a rightful exercise of the Senate’s Constitutional oversight powers.
The urgency of her work was underscored in March when the Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Quiboloy and KOJC leaders for trafficking and child abuse.
His arrest in Sept. 2024 emboldened more survivors to speak. On Oct. 23, women from the Philippines and abroad, including Ukraine, testified about sexual, physical, and psychological abuse allegedly orchestrated by Quiboloy himself.
The inquiry soon widened to financial exploitation. Survivors revealed that members, including overseas Filipino workers, were coerced to surrender up to 90 percent of their income to KOJC.
The Anti-Money Laundering Council began probing possible money laundering and coercion, deepening the case against Quiboloy’s organization.
Politics intensified the hearings. A masked witness known as “Rene,” later identified as Michael Maurillo, testified he had seen former President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Sara Duterte handling firearms at Quiboloy’s compound.
Given Quiboloy’s close ties to the Dutertes, the statement drew national attention. Yet in June 2025, Maurillo suddenly recanted, alleging that Hontiveros bribed him and that her staff had altered his affidavit.
The accusation was an obvious smear. Hontiveros forcefully denied it, calling the claims outright lies meant to sabotage the inquiry.
She stressed that Maurillo’s original testimony had been delivered under oath before the Senate, where perjury carries legal consequences, making it more credible than a retraction without evidence.
No receipts, no documents, no corroborating witnesses were produced. Her staff categorically denied any tampering, and she immediately filed cyber libel complaints against Maurillo and those spreading the allegations online.
Hontiveros also warned that Maurillo may have been coerced into retracting, pointing to Quiboloy’s well-documented record of silencing critics and intimidating followers.
Coordinated disinformation campaigns quickly amplified the accusations, proof that powerful interests were desperate to discredit the investigation.
These attacks collapse when measured against Hontiveros’ long record.
She has been one of the country’s most consistent defenders of women, children, and trafficking survivors. Her immediate, transparent response showed confidence in the truth.
She did not evade scrutiny, she confronted it directly. The contrast could not be sharper: Quiboloy, accused of heinous crimes, evaded accountability at every turn, while Hontiveros faced fabricated charges head-on.
The Quiboloy hearings exposed more than one man’s alleged crimes.
They revealed how unchecked religious authority can enable systemic abuse, how faith can be twisted into a weapon of exploitation, and how financial coercion can drain the most vulnerable. They also highlighted the difficulty of pursuing justice in a political system where intimidation, influence, and lies are used to shield the powerful.
No credible evidence links the Dutertes directly to Quiboloy’s crimes.
Yet the controversy underscored the dangerous intersections of politics, religion, and impunity. For Hontiveros, the hearings became both a fight for survivor justice and a legislative battle to close loopholes that allow exploitation to thrive under religious cover.
Despite relentless smear campaigns, Hontiveros never wavered.
Her leadership showed that abuses committed under the cloak of spiritual authority must not escape accountability. The bribery allegation was never about exposing truth, it was about silencing the investigation.
In the end, Senator Hontiveros’ work in the Quiboloy inquiry stands as a defense of the vulnerable and a refusal to let power, politics, or disinformation derail justice.
She proved that survivors deserve not only to be heard but to be protected, and that even in the face of lies, intimidation, and entrenched interests, truth and accountability must prevail.
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