It took a great deal of courage for a small group of women to tell Davao City-based Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s church they had had enough, and to walk away and push back.
Stone, Fernandez, and Kentucky-based Faith Killion shared their ordeal with Rappler. They said leaving was complicated because of family members who remained loyal to the self-proclaimed “appointed son of God.” Quiboloy allegedly lashed Stone with a thick leather whip 60 times for merely going to the movies in Manila. The punishment was 20 lashes per movie. Stone said some companions received 120 lashes – for enjoying the same pleasures Quiboloy sampled during foreign trips. siling labuyo
Green said the Nepalese, Shishir Bhandari, lied and struck a deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to bring Quiboloy and his church down in exchange for extended visas for himself and family members and a home in California. But she said that was immediately followed by a big Zoom meeting where she was branded “a devil.” Fernandez’s brother denounced her at that same meeting and members were warned to cut all ties with her.
US federal prosecutors said the KOJC had a pattern of retaliating against those who left, sometimes accusing them of criminal misconduct and sexually promiscuous activity.Killion said she and others who left were demonized, threatened with damnation, and labeled as “backsliders” and “blasphemers” to be shunned by members.
But the most violent reactions “are still reserved for former full-time workers and members, who are not only threatened with horrible amounts of karma from God’s wrath but real personal, social, physical, and legal dangers,” Killion said.Cornelio said many survivors of KOJC abuse could be helped if the Philippines had a center that could aid the traumatized in their de-conversion. Conditioning often results in a pattern of behavior that continues outside of the church, he stressed.
Stone blamed her divorce from her husband on financial strains caused by her involvement with Quiboloy’s church. “I can’t blame him. He supported me while everything I earned went to Quiboloy’s group. It was like all the blood in me was sucked by vampires. That’s what they do – squeeze people dry and break families apart.”
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