By Diego Morra

Apollo C. Quiboloy has no passport to heaven and Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio’s hypothesis that he was hiding in heaven was bonkers theory, consistent with all the crazy ideas promoted by the Duterte dynasty in Davao City.

Fact is, Quiboloy was hiding within his 30-hectare kingdom near the Francisco Bangoy International Airport when authorities gave him a 24-hour ultimatum to yield. Faced with the possibility that the 2,000 cops mobilized to hunt for him would finally find him, the “appointed son of god” and “owner of the universe” retracted his vow not to be taken alive. Yet, there are suckers out there who still think that Quiboloy, 74, is divine but could not stop two arrest warrants against him from being enforced.

Talk about him not being arrested, as promoted by his counsel, is a fable. He surrendered, the story goes, and that the police did not capture him. This is a washout, an absurd tale, as the cops took him, processed him like any suspect in criminal cases, and clapped him in a detention cell. Even an appointed son of god and owner of the universe will have his day in court. Remember Shakespeare? Even a mange-riddled dog will have its day. Or its dark night.

Like cult leaders David Koresh of the Branch Davidians and Jim Jones of People’s Temple, Quiboloy doesn’t talk about the scripture but fancies himself as more than an influential religious leader since he endorses politicians, even cranky ones given to disjointed riffing, and encourages his glassy-eyed zealots to vote for them. The synergy of Quiboloy and Duterte is classic, with Duterte guaranteeing Quiboloy getting his kingdom at Tamayong, with the Manobo landowners kicked out and one mercilessly murdered. Quiboloy in turn has gone untouched in Davao City even if his bodyguards and his henchmen have been accused of engaging in the drug trade, with one eventually being punished by New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas.

Again, like David Koresh, who was responsible for the deaths of 85 or his members in Waco, Texas from Feb. 28, 1993 to April 19, 1993 and Jim Jones, who slaughtered 909 of his People’s Temple by forcing them to drink Flavor Aid laced with cyanide and other poisons, Quiboloy is accused of sexual abuse, exploitation of minors and child trafficking. The FBI also slapped Quiboloy with sexual trafficking, forcing members to yield to his sexual advances, wire fraud, dollar smuggling and other crimes. A US court has already indicted Quiboloy and his extradition is in the offing. There is little interest for the current administration to hold him in Philippine jails. He will be more comfortably housed in US federal prisons.

Cult leaders like the Ecleos of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA) and Quiboloy built megaliths to show how big and strong their congregations are but their foundations are not on bedrocks but on clay, wondrous clay, and eventually liquefaction would destroy them. Valentin de los Santos of Lapiang Malaya (LM) did not build palaces and large edifices that double as “places of worship.” The old man challenged the Marcos regime and demanded that it leave the Palace for abuse of authority and worsening the people’s economic conditions. A deadline to disperse was issued and a massacre ensued, with government suffering one fatality who was hacked by LM members, and scores died in the “rebellion.”

Cult leaders share not only from greed but also lust for sex and power. They claim divine powers and interpret the scripture to justify entering into matrimony with married and unmarried members alike. This was the case of David Koresh, who claimed to be a descendant of King David and thus has dibs to every female belonging to the Branch Davidians. Jim Jones also justified his right to bone People’s Temple members in their Jonestown, Guyana commune after profiting from their labor in his confused “apostolic socialism” in the Latin American badlands. Jones ordered “revolutionary suicide” after his bodyguards killed a visiting US congressman and four of his companions who investigated allegations of labor exploitation, sexual enslavement of both men and women and unjust enrichment of Jones. A total of 909 People’s Temple perished at the altar of Jones’ weird religious dogma on Nov. 18, 1978.

In the case of Shree Bhagwan Rajneesh, the jet-setting Indian cult leader, his army of tangerine or saffron-robed members consider him as their god and gave him scores of millions of dollars to support his luxurious lifestyle along with fleets of Cadillacs and Lincoln Continentals and private jets. Rajneesh was eventually charged with fraud and tax evasion and convicted. He lost his millions, fled to India and died. The chanting devotees who wore beaded necklaces bearing Rajneesh’s face have evaporated, only to reappear as journalists, presidential advisers and promoters of neoliberalism, which is another cult. #

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Diego Mora is a retired journalist.

Opinions expressed in his contributed article above are his own and may not necessarily reflect Kodao’s.