Commentary: Quiboloy’s arrest – when self-proclaimed ‘Son of God’ plays politics

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Collusion between Quiboloy and political actors should not come as a surprise. Quiboloy and KOJC would not have reached this level of notoriety without the help of powerful politicians, starting from his home base of Davao until the presidential palace.

He is, after all, a close ally, friend, and “spiritual adviser” of Rodrigo Duterte, who ruled Davao for nearly three decades as its mayor before assuming the presidency in 2016. The former president even took over as administrator of Quiboloy and the KOJC’s assets following the pastor’s arrest.

Duterte admitted that Quiboloy would offer him material gifts such as properties and cars but claimed that he would refuse them. Recently, a whistleblower said that Quiboloy would also gift women to Duterte and other officials.

Their relationship reached its peak in 2016 when Quiboloy backed Duterte’s presidential campaign. Duterte’s win supposedly fulfilled a 1998 dream of Quiboloy’s, which prophesied the mayor’s rise to the presidency.

However, this was not the pastor’s first foray into national politics. In 2004, Quiboloy claimed that he heard “a voice from above” saying that former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was chosen to lead the country. Arroyo won a full six-year term after succeeding the ousted former president Joseph Estrada.

Quiboloy gave his blessing for the 2010 elections to Gilberto Teodoro, Arroyo’s defence secretary and the administration candidate, as he was the Almighty Father’s “appointed” one. Teodoro placed a distant fourth that year, which saw the election of his cousin, Benigno Aquino III.