By Antonio L. Colina IV
Davao City – Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, founding leader of religious sect, The Kingdom Of Jesus Christ, was not detained at an airport in Honolulu, Hawaii.
This is what his lawyer, Israelito Torreon told ABS-CBN Davao yesterday in an interview.
Torreon said the detention did not happen because a “detention implies that he committed a crime.”
“(And) if there was a crime committed, he would have been ordered to stay there because that’s allegedly in flagrante delicto, that there was crime being committed and therefore he needed to be detained in the US. But that’s not what happened. He is here in the Philippines, and therefore we should just relax, this matter being clarified, I hope this put to rest (the issue) now,” he said.
He did not elaborate on what transpired in Hawaii claiming his knowledge of the incident limited.
Hawaii News Now reported on Thursday that Quiboloy was among six people, including American Felina Salinas, detained by Hawaiian authorities with an inspection of his Cessna Citation Sovereign yielding $350,000 cash as with parts used in military-style rifles.
The report said Salinas, a business manager at the Waipahu church, was eventually arrested after she admitted the cash was hers.
She was released only after she paid a $25,000 bond, the report added.
It said she was charged with attempted bulk cash smuggling.
Apparently she only declared $40,000 in cash.
Federal law requires “anyone taking more than $10,000 out of the country to declare it.”
The report added the federal government is planning to seize the $15 million private plane that was left in Honolulu.
The report added Quiboloy and his other companions took a commercial flight back to the Philippines following the Hawaiian stop.
Torreon, also dean of a law college owned by Quiboloy, said he had already talked to Quiboloy several times after the pastor and his companions landed in Manila from Hawaii at 6:35 p.m. on Thursday.
He did not detail what they discussed but Torreon said Quiboloy instructed him to inform the public, most especially his flock that he is “okay” and that “there is no need for them to panic.”
Quiboloy is to lead a long-scheduled prayer rally at the Ynares Compound in Antipolo on Sunday, followed by succeeding appearances in prayer rallies in Baguio, Cebu and other parts of the country.
In a live interview on CNN Philippines at 9:20, Torreon said Quiboloy was allowed to leave Hawaii after he made a clarification on the cash and gun parts found on his plane.
He added Quiboloy claimed “no knowledge about it” and that “he was even surprised and the US authorities believed him.”
“There is no way it can be legally probable for him to arrive right away if he was charged, if he was detained or if a deportation proceeding was made against him,” Torreon added.
Asked for more details, he said, “I would be (a) hypocrite if I will say anything about it because, in the first place, I was not there. What I will be saying will be hearsay evidence therefore I need not comment on it.”
Quiboloy is a close friend of President Rodrigo Duterte. He offered his private jets to then presidential candidate during the local and national elections in 2016.
