A view from a roadside house in Sitio Kitbog, overlooking green structures at a distance amid rolling terrain. The green structures allegedly belong to the KOJC. Photo taken on Sunday, 12 May 2024. MindaNews photo by ROMMEL REBOLLIDO
KALONBARAK, Malungon, Sarangani (MindaNews / 13 May) – Can the fugitive doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy, by any chance, hide in a remote community perched almost a thousand meters above sea level, which the self-proclaimed “appointed son of God” refers to as the mountain where God called him?
On a cloudy mid-morning on Sunday, May 12, an old dark blue Nissan Patrol wagon emerged on a dirt road from Sitio Kitbog, a nearby mountain community of Blaan people, and made its way along houses here.
Minutes later, the vehicle re-appeared on the opposite side of the road. This time, already filled with people who were noticeably in their Sunday’s best, moving slowly as it headed back to Sitio Kitbog, about three kilometers away.
The vehicle fetched worshipers to attend service at a church of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) in Kitbog, said Liza, a sitio leader.
Quiboloy in Sunday service
“Sakyanan ni Quiboloy na, kuhaon ang mga miyembro nila aron mosimba sa Kitbog (That is Quiboloy’s car. They use it to fetch worshipers from their homes and take them to Kitbog to attend church service),” Liza said.
KOJC is a church founded by the controversial Quiboloy, who has evaded the law despite having three warrants for his arrest.
An article published on KOJC website, refers to Kitbog as the place where the “appointed son of God” realized “God’s calling” and where his ministry began in the ’70s.
Liza said Quiboloy always leads in Sunday church service in Kitbog, but quickly pointed out “on video.” The Blaan community leader denied she is a KOJC follower, saying she goes to a different church near her house.
Asked if Quiboloy leads the church service in Kitbog in person, Liza said “Wala siya diha, video lang parehas sa tanan simbahan nila sa abroad (He is not there, only on video like what you see in their other churches abroad).”
On May 4, Quiboloy’s black helicopter landed in Kitbog, but Liza said she could not tell if the preacher was on it. “Halos man kada adlaw dunay moabot helicopter (Almost every day, a helicopter arrives),” she quipped.
Young sidekick preacher
The 55-year-old sitio leader recalled her younger years in the ’70s as she tagged along with her parents when they attended church service in Kitbog.
She is related to the Pangilans, a prominent Blaan clan who owns vast tracts of land in Kitbog.
The community leader said Quiboloy was then a young preacher of a protestant church in Kitbog, its rolling terrain thick with forest and had very few residents. People then had to walk or go on horseback to move to places, she added.
“Bata-bata lang na siya ni Major Sanchez sa una, wala pa siya nailhan (He was just a sidekick of Major Sanchez before, he was still unknown),” she said, referring to Quiboloy.
The majorthat Liza mentioned was a member of the then Presidential Assistant on National Minorities (Panamin), who was deployed in Kalonbarak to look into the concerns of indigenous peoples, mostly Blaan, in those early years.
A house in Kitbog
A KOJC Kingdom Chronicles video shows a modest house of Quiboloy in Kitbog.
The preacher said he will transform Kitbog into a “pilgrimage destination” similar to the Prayer Mountain and Glory Mountain in Barangay Tamayong, Davao City.
The roughly 15-kilometer road to Kitbog from the national highway is an almost continuous steep climb on a zigzagging bumpy pathway of alternating portions of concrete and limestone pavement cut on a mountain-side.
In the video, Quiboloy said: “We will make a city out of Sitio Kitbog.”
Atop a hillock by a sharp downhill curve along the road from Kalonbarak to Kitbog stands a painted house but covered in vegetation. It is quite different from other houses in the area, fenced with a lawn, a garden of flowers and lined with pine trees.
An unattended lawn lined with pine trees stands out on a roadside downhill curve along the dirt road linking Sitio Kalonbarak to Sitio Kitbog. Photo taken on Sunday, 12 May 2024. MindaNews photo by ROMMEL REBOLLIDO
Fernando Pangilan, a resident in the place, said it belongs to his brother – Datu Edmund Pangilan, who is Sarangani province tribal chieftain and the Indigenous People’s Representative (IPMR) to the Malungon legislative council.
Pangilan said the house has not been occupied for some time because his brother, who is also a church pastor but not with KOJC, stays mostly at his house in Malalag Cogon, a barangay along the highway to Davao del Sur.
From the said house in Kitbog is an overlooking view of green structures at a distance amid rolling terrain. The structures belong to KOJC, Pangilan said.
This reporter has been trying to contact Datu Edmund since a week ago to no avail for his comment about an ancestral domain which stewardship was allegedly presented by the Blaan community to Quiboloy.
On May 29, 2023, Quiboloy was conferred the title “Datu Tud Labun” and thereafter “Pastor Quiboloy was presented with the stewardship of their ancestral domain,” KOJC said on its website.
Do you have a copy of the warrant?
A young cop at the Malungon police station on Thursday, May 9, appeared startled when asked if they had monitored the fugitive preacher’s presence in the town.
The young policeman said that whenever Quiboloy is in town, “his people usually coordinate with the military, not with us.”
A dirt road snakes on hilltops to the KOJC compound in Sitio Kitbog, Poblacion, Malungon, Sarangani province. Photo taken on Sunday, 12 May 2024. MindaNews photo by ROMMEL REBOLLIDO
When told about three arrest orders for Quiboloy, the cop in his blue Philippine National Policeman polo shirt asked if this reporter has copies of Quiboloy’s arrest warrants.
The arrest orders – one issued by the Senate on March 19, another one by a court in Davao City on April 1 and a court in Pasig on April 11 – were for a string of criminal offenses, including alleged human trafficking, child abuse and sexual abuse.
Asked if they have been to Kitbog, he said they “cannot go there because it is a private area.”
Another policeman, in half uniform and who did not identify himself, said they cannot just go to Kitbog “because of the nature of the events going on in the place, religious, mahirap na.”
This reporter asked to talk to the chief of police, but was told he was at the provincial police office attending to important matters. (Rommel Rebollido / MindaNews)