BY JOVEN TUNGALA
Senator Robin Padilla on Wednesday advised Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who is facing an arrest order from the Senate over his repeated refusal to attend an inquiry into his alleged crimes, to take his case to the Supreme Court for resolution.
“My office has done everything in accordance with the rules and procedures of the Senate to protect the rights of Pastor Quiboloy. The committee chairman has decided, and Senate President Zubiri has taken action on issuing the warrant of arrest,” Padilla told reporters in a text message.
“The legal alternative action I can see for Pastor Quiboloy is to bring this matter to the Supreme Court,” he added.
To recall, the senator initially attempted to block the arrest order against Quiboloy but ultimately failed to gather enough votes for his bid.
Earlier this week, the Senate issued the contempt order against Quiboloy a day after he provided a “nowhere near satisfactory” response to the show cause order against him.
The contempt order, which was signed by Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri upon the request of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality chair Senator Risa Hontiveros, stated that Quiboloy must be “arrested and detained” at the Office of the Sergeant-At-Arms.
The document said that the contempt order would be effective “until such time that he will appear and testify in the Committee, or otherwise purges himself of that contempt.”
For his part, Ferdinand Topacio, general legal counsel of Quiboloy, said that their camp will avail all legal remedies to protect their client from what he described as “hell-bent prosecution.”
“Pastor Quiboloy’s legal team have done its level best to protect the Pastor and shield him from violations of his rights, but sadly, there are some powerful individuals who are hell-bent on persecuting him,” Topacio said in a statement.
“As we prepare to avail of all judicial remedies, we shall now henceforth refrain from specifically commenting on the aforementioned issues out of respect to the courts, and we enjoin the others concerned to exhibit some sense of common decency at long last by doing the same,” he added.
He continued: “We now place full reliance on the Judiciary as the final nation of the people’s rights, confident that the rights of an innocent man such as Pastor Quiboloy will be vindicated, and his good name finally cleared.”
Quiboloy earlier admitted he was in hiding due to alleged threats to his life.
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