Apollo Quiboloy —INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
The charges against disgraced preacher Apollo Quiboloy in local courts remain unaffected by the deal one of his former aides reached with US prosecutors, the Department of Justice (DOJ) assured on Friday.
Marissa Duenas, human resources manager of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), reached a plea bargain deal with prosecutors in the United States that in exchange for her guilty plea, all charges of human trafficking, money laundering and forced labor against her will be dropped.
According to the plea deal, the US-based Duenas and her co-accused helped arrange more than 25 but less than 100 sham marriages from 2015 to 2020 for KOJC members to avoid immigration laws.
Church members were brought to the United States under the guise of being special guests in several concerts that support the KOJC, according to the plea. Upon arrival, their passports were taken by Duenas, her co-accused Gia Cabactulan and Amanda Estopare.
The KOJC members would be forced to solicit donations for their church’s Children’s Joy Foundation, which allegedly aimed to support underprivileged children in Manila.
$20M in donations
About $20 million worth of funds were raised from the solicited donation from 2014 to 2019, but according to the complaint, majority of this went to church leaders who bought luxury cars and houses in the United States.
Duenas, Cabactulan and Estopare were arrested by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a raid in Van Nuy, Los Angeles, California, in February 2020. The three pleaded not guilty.
Charges in the United States against Cabactulan and Estopare still remain pending, the DOJ clarified.
The DOJ also stressed the child-abuse charges against Quiboloy before a Quezon City court and the qualified human trafficking charges against him in a Pasig Court also remain unaffected.