CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Paulene Canada, a church associate of fugitive preacher Apollo Quiboloy, has found herself right smack in the middle of a legal storm.
Until her arrest on Thursday, July 11, Canada was wanted along with Quiboloy and four others for a human trafficking case in Pasig, one of the many that have cast a shadow over her religious group, the Davao-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC).
Police arrested Canada at a house in Emily Homes in Buhangin District, making her the first among the six fugitives, including Quiboloy, to be caught after a regional court in Pasig issued arrest warrants on April 11. A week before the Pasig court ordered their arrest, five of them had posted bail for a separate child abuse case in Davao.
KOJC lawyer Israelito Torreon questioned Canada’s arrest, claiming that the police initially kept the arrest under wraps, and that her rights were violated.
He told a news conference in Davao that no lawyer assisted Canada and claimed that the police lied to him when he inquired about the arrest.
Torreon said his text messages and calls to Davao Region police chief Brigadier General Nicolas Torre III on Thursday were unanswered, and the police official’s aide supposedly told him that Canada was not arrested.
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos and Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Francisco Marbil presented Canada to reporters on Friday morning, July 12.
Days before Canada’s arrest, Quiboloy’s followers went ballistic and took a dramatic step in Davao, casting a curse on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, Speaker Martin Romualdez, and Abalos, in a startling turn reminiscent of biblical narratives.
The plot twist followed Abalos’ announcement of a P15-million reward for the capture of Quiboloy and his associates.
Nori Cardona, a Quiboloy associate, told a news conference in Davao on Tuesday, July 9, that the Marcoses, Romualdez, and Abalos would suffer from a deadly disease as foretold in a “prophecy” from the Middle East.
Cardona read: “The angel of judgment shall come upon you – Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Liza Araneta-Marcos, Martin Romualdez, Benhur Abalos – for you have oppressed and afflicted God’s appointed, Apollo C. Quiboloy. For the one that touches him touches the apple of God’s eye. As you have grieved the son of God, you shall be plagued with a deadly disease, a crippling condition, a formidable disorder that even your nearest and dearest ones shall suffer terribly. It will be a dreadful curse so devastating that existence itself becomes a burden.”
Quiboloy styles himself as the “appointed son of God,” and his followers genuinely believe in his claims of divinity and supernatural abilities.
But just two days after hurling the supernatural threats, Canada, the first of the six fugitives, was caught by authorities.
Canada has long been a loyal follower of Quiboloy and belongs to one of the oldest clans to convert to his religion in Davao.
According to former KOJC members, Canada holds a leadership position in the organization. She once served as KOJC’s chief finance officer and is a member of Quiboloy’s “pastoral” department, a special group of women who assist the religious leader and run errands for him, among other things – duties seen as “privileges” in the organization.
In a 2021 interview with Rappler, former KOJC “pastoral” Arlene Caminong-Stone, who had testified against Quiboloy during a Senate committee hearing earlier this year, said the Canadas are seen as one of the “royal families” in the religious group because they were among the first to follow the preacher.
Canada’s elder siblings – Ingrid and Cresente – are also among Quiboloy’s most trusted lieutenants. Ingrid, according to former KOJC members, is the church administrator, while Cresente, currently the barangay chairman of Tamayong in Davao, served as Quiboloy’s close-in security aide and driver.
The siblings are among the five Quiboloy associates charged with human trafficking in Pasig and child abuse in Davao.
On April 3, Paulene and KOJC coordinator Sylvia Cemañes turned themselves in to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Davao after authorities arrested Cresente earlier that day in connection with their child abuse case.
Paulene’s elder sister Ingrid and Jackielyn Roy, a KOJC choir singer and “pastoral,” surrendered the following day.
All of them, including Cresente, were released by the NBI after posting an P80,000-bail bond each, but subsequently became fugitives after the Pasig court ordered their arrest.
Interestingly, on May 27, Cresente surrendered 21 firearms to authorities in Davao, but was released by authorities despite an April 11 arrest warrant due to the non-bailable human trafficking case in Pasig.
Authorities said the firearms, all licensed, belonged to Cresente, who is supposedly a sports gun collector.
Quiboloy divided the Canadas. Cracks in the clan showed when one of the families decided enough was enough, severed their ties with the doomsday preacher, and left for the US before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
The faction was blamed by Quiboloy’s Hawaii-based lawyer, Michael Jay Green, for the KOJC’s legal troubles in the US. He called them “dissidents” out to bring the Davao-based preacher down.
Quiboloy is considered a fugitive, too, in the US, where he and another set of church associates were charged in 2021 with conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, sex trafficking of children, marriage fraud, fraud and misuse of visas, bulk cash smuggling, promotional money laundering, concealment money laundering, and international promotional money laundering.
In early 2022, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) placed him under its wanted list alongside his church associates Teresita Dandan and Helen Panilag, and several other fugitives from Mexico and China.
On December 10, 2021, Green told Rappler that at least 14 “dissidents” were working against Quiboloy, including a Nepalese named Shishir Bhandari, former operations manager of Apollo Air, the preacher’s Davao City-based airline company.
Bhandari is the husband of one of the Canadas, a lawyer, who had a falling-out with Quiboloy.
“When he (Bhandari) found out that they were gonna do an audit, they ran like thieves in the night,” Green told Rappler in 2021.
Bhandari and his family have declined interviews on the advice of lawyers from the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
The unfolding legal battles and internal divisions within Quiboloy’s “kingdom” hint at a turbulent future for the once-unified religious group, leaving many to wonder what fate awaits its embattled leader and his loyal followers. – Rappler.com
