DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 30 June) — Allies and supporters of fugitive Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), are amplifying narratives of “innocence” and “overkill” in the aftermath of the June 10 simultaneous raids on the KOJC properties to arrest the self-appointed “son of God,” who is facing criminal charges in two courts and contempt charges in the Senate.
These narratives have been reported by Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) and reshared hundreds of times by KOJC members individually or in different Facebook pages, including some SMNI reporters like program director Richard Reyes, and in groups like KOJC members and Kingdom of Jesus Christ The Name Above Every Name.
Reyes posted on June 11 that the attempt of the Philippine National Police (PNP), including its elite Special Action Forces (SAF), to arrest Quiboloy “is too much.” He said: Okay lang ba ganito kadami at naka full battle gear? Para sa amin hindi okay kasi mga SAF yan at ang role nila is for counter terrorism. Di naman kami terrorista (You think it’s okay to have so many people in full-battle gear? For us it is not okay because the SAF is for counter-terrorism. We are not terrorists).
This gained 59 reactions, 21 comments and 144 shares as of Saturday, June 29.
The propagation of their echo chamber, albeit a public one, is one of the symptoms of an influence operation. The definition of influence operation includes the messaging that is usually leveraged by groups, including religious entities, to propagate a narrative. According to accepted definitions of IO, symptoms include the creation of echo chambers and/or filter bubbles. IO operations typically stay inside these echo chambers and filter bubbles and leverage the messages to match their narrative, whatever these may be. To be clear, IO is not illegal in the Philippines, however.
SMNI is the broadcast media arm of KOJC, a religious group Quiboloy founded in September 1985.
Aside from SAF troopers, members of the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group simultaneously stormed on June 10 the KOJC compound beside the Davao International Airport and Quiboloy’s Glory Mountain and Prayer Mountain in Barangay Tamayong, all in Davao City; and the KOJC property in Kitbog, Malungon, Sarangani.
Quiboloy continues to evade arrest despite being hounded by three warrants of arrest: from the Senate on March 19, a court in Davao City on April 1 and a court in Pasig on April 11 for various crimes, including alleged human trafficking, child abuse, and sexual abuse.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte condemned what he described as “excessive” use of force by the police to arrest his friend and spiritual adviser, Quiboloy. Duterte was designated administrator of KOJC properties in March shortly after Quiboloy went into hiding
“This incident occurred within a place of worship and on school premises, which is absolutely unacceptable,” he said in a statement posted on verified Facebook page Rody Duterte at 11:16 p.m. on June 10.
“Will this overkill be the trademark of this administration when dealing with individuals who are merely accused of committing a crime and have not been proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt?” added Duterte, whose “Gikan sa Masa, Para Sa Masa” program with SMNI had been deleted by Facebook last June 7.
Duterte’s Facebook post generated 13K reactions, 3.7K comments and 5.4K shares as of 8:30 a.m. on June 29.
SMNI’s website and Facebook page carried reports of Quiboloy’s supporters condemning the “overkill raid” and professing his “innocence.” The live coverage and series of articles, video clips and interviews, appear to be an orchestrated attempt at influence operations to protect him from prosecution and arrest.
According to the DISARM foundation, a US-based non-government organization that specializes in unraveling disinformation and influence operation, a group or a person might target or exploit social media through an “echo chamber,” which it defines as “an internet subgroup… where individuals only engage with others with which they are already in agreement, which in turn, will reinforce biases to its target audience members.”
DISARM said that in an influence operation, social media pages might be used to enable “the spread and hyper-targeting of narratives at an unprecedented scale.”
Using Meta’s Crowdtangle tool, the hashtag #JusticeForPastorACQ peaked on June 10, when authorities tried but failed to arrest Quiboloy. Many using these hashtags were pro-Duterte pages or supporters.
The Facebook pages identified with SMNI also used the hashtag. As of June 29, the hashtag can be seen on 231 posts with 15,540 interactions.
These Facebook pages also used other hashtags such as #justiceforpastorapolloquiboloy, #JusticeForPastorApolloCQuiboloy, #JusticeForPastorApollo, and #PastorApolloCQuiboloy, in pushing the “overkill” narrative to arrest Quiboloy.
Last January, SMNI’s radio and television operations were suspended indefinitely by the National Telecommunications Commission in connection with an administrative case filed against the company. The network’s administrative case stemmed from House Resolution No. 1499, which said that SMNI violated the terms and conditions of its franchise under Republic Act No. 11422. Authored by PBA Party-list Rep. Margarita Nograles, the resolution scored SMNI for spreading “false information.”
Nograles hails from Davao City where SMNI is based.
Last March, the House revoked SMNI’s franchise for “violations of broadcast standards, blatant red-tagging and fake news peddling.”
Despite the revocation, SMNI, which is operated by Swara Sug Media Corporation (SSMC), continues to operate using social media platforms Facebook, X (formely Twitter), TikTok, and YouTube.
SMNI faces challenges to retain their social media presence in sites like Meta’s Facebook. It had been repeatedly removed, or its programs with the recent one involving Duterte’s Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa last June 7. Yet, new ones were created to continue SMNI’s social media presence.
On June 10, Quiboloy’s supporters formed a barricade outside the KOJC compound in Catitipan. SMNI went on Facebook Live during and after police forces raided the compound, through the SMNI News page with 31K followers and its Totoong Boses ng Bayan, which has around 436,100 followers. It also featured CCTV footage and photos during the police’s serving of arrest warrants in Tamayong, Davao City; and in Kitbog, Sarangani Province.
During their almost six-hour live coverage, SMNI interviewed several people, mostly lawyers of Quiboloy, expressing his “innocence” and deploring the “overkill” allegedly employed by the police.
On the two Facebook Live coverages, the Totoong Boses ng Bayan got 10.2k views as of June 13, while the SMNI News had 150.8k views as of the same date. As of June 29, the Totoong Boses ng Bayan Facebook page could no longer be accessed.
Those interviewed during SMNI’s live coverage were KOJC secretary Eleanor Cardona, KOJC lawyers Dinah Tolentino-Fuentes, Israelito Torreon and Adam Jambangan, Duterte’s former presidential spokespersons Harry Roque and Salvador Panelo, former broadcast journalist and “political commentator” Jay Sonza, and KOJC minister Carlo Catiil.
Each guest was asked along the lines of “Is Pastor Quiboloy innocent… What could be the intentions of the police if Pastor Quiboloy is innocent? How about the security and safety of KOJC members and its properties?” The guests replied favorably for Quiboloy, with his lawyers citing the legal principle that an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty and that he is “not a fugitive,” hence must not be arrested.
“Sana naman ay igalang nila ‘yung karapatang pantao ng mga tao, at si Pastor din, kasi wala naman talaga siyang ginawang masama para sa ating kapwa (I hope they will respect the human rights of people, including Pastor, because he did not do anything wrong to other people). So kung may warrant of arrest siya (If there is really a warrant of arrest), implement the warrant of arrest properly and not violate the rights of other people especially the Kingdom of Jesus Christ,” Torreon said.
No PNP personnel was interviewed during the live coverage to air their side, however.
SMNI also posted on its website several articles of the views of Quiboloy’s allies regarding the police troops’ raiding of the KOJC properties to arrest the suspect. SMNI also reported that the troops failed to present search warrants.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has conducted an investigation if there were indeed lapses during the operation. Brig. Gen. Aligre Martinez, chief of the Police Regional Office in the Davao Region, and 12 other police officers were relieved effective June 13 to give way to an impartial investigation.
On June 15, PDP-Laban Senator Robinhood Padilla, a Duterte ally, sought a Senate inquiry in-aid-of-legislation involving the raids at the KOJC properties.
Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama, a friend of Quiboloy and supporter of Duterte, condemned the PNP’s alleged use of force to enter the KOJC properties. Rama was suspended for six months starting May for alleged non-payment of employees’ salaries.
At the end of the unbylined article, SMNI reported that Rama, a good friend of the pastor, “was upset by what happened.”
In another unbylined article, SMNI featured KOJC executive secretary Cardona, who said that KOJC’s seven million followers are “ready to offer their lives” for the fugitive pastor.
Cardona said in the article: “This One Kingdom Nation is strong, we stand as one, we are united now more than ever, mas malakas na kami ngayon (we are stronger than ever), and we are bolder, going to stand firm in our commitment specially [sic] to our Beloved Pastor where ever he is now…”
Following the raids, other articles of support for Quiboloy were also published, including those of students from Quiboloy’s Jose Maria College Foundation Incorporated (JMCFI).
As of this writing, Quiboloy continues to evade arrest. (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)
(This alert was produced with support from an Internews initiative aiming to build the capacity of news organizations to understand and monitor disinformation and influence operations in the Philippines.)
