Apollo Quiboloy


Apollo Carreón Quiboloy is the founder and leader of the Philippines-based Restorationist church called the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. He has made claims that he is "The Appointed Son of God" and as well as being "The Owner of the Universe".

Early years

Quiboloy was born on April 25, 1950 in Davao City, and is the youngest of nine children of Kapampangans José Quibóloy y Turla and María Carreón y Quinto. Both his parents were natives of Lubao, Pampanga, and had migrated to Davao following the end of the Second World War to find better jobs.
Quiboloy was a member of the United Pentecostal Church, a Oneness Pentecostal denomination, until he established the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church. Apollo Quiboloy's father, José, was already a Protestant but converted to Oneness Pentecostalism with four sons, who all became preachers and leaders in the United Pentecostal Church of the Philippines, the largest Filipino Oneness Pentecostal Church, which is affiliated to the U.S.-based United Pentecostal Church International. Apollo became president of the powerful UPCP youth organization in 1974, but was expelled from UPCP in 1979 for unorthodox teachings. He repented, apologized, and was accepted back into the fold in 1980 as pastor of the Agdao Church in Davao City, one of the historical UPCP churches. In 1985, Apollo was put again under investigation by UPCP for his arrogant attitudes towards other pastors. Rather than submitting to trial, he left UPCP with some 15 followers on September 1, 1985, and started his own denomination.

Church

Quiboloy is the founding leader and Executive Pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name founded on September 1, 1985. He began preaching in the slums of Villamor, Agdao, Davao City with only 15 members. He has received critical responses to his claims of being the "Appointed Son of God".
The sect's main Cathedral is located along Buhangin National Highway in Davao City.
His followers refer to their community as a "Kingdom Nation." They claim about 2 million "Kingdom citizens" abroad and 4 million in the Philippines. On weekdays, members hold bible sessions and prayer services. On Sundays, a "Global Worship" is held at the Cathedral in Buhangin District. In 2000, Quiboloy founded José María College, named after his parents.
Quiboloy has claimed to possess divine powers, claiming to have stopped the 2019 Cotabato earthquakes at his command and said that the public should thank him for the act. He has publicly said that he did not do the same to stop the onslaught of Typhoon Kammuri in response to those critical of his earlier claim in stopping the Cotabato earthquakes.

Media holdings

His ministry has a global television channel, the Sonshine Media Network International, and 17 radio stations in the Philippines. It also has two newspapers, Pinas and Sikat.; the Pinas is circulated weekly for followers in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

Involvement in sports

In June 2014, Quiboloy founded Sonshine Sports Management, the newly created sports management group based in Davao City. SSMI organized different boxing and basketball events within the city.

Political involvement

Quiboloy anointed Gilbert Teodoro as the next president in the 2010 Philippine presidential election. "Tonight let it be known to all Filipinos that the Almighty Father has appointed the president of this nation. He is no other than Gilbert 'Gibo' Teodoro", Quiboloy told thousands of cheering followers. Teodoro finished fourth in the election with 4,095,839 votes to which Quiboloy responded, "I myself am a little bit disturbed with the reports of fraud and cheating in the last elections. Even I am asking where did the votes of the Kingdom go? What happened to our votes when we were supposed to be solid for Gibo?"
In the 2016 national elections, Quiboloy and the members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ endorsed the presidential candidacy of the pastor's close friend, Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte and his running mate Senator Alan Peter Cayetano. Quiboloy also lent his private jet and helicopter to be used in Duterte's presidential campaign.

Controversies

Allegations of brainwashing by a former church member
Quiboloy has been sued by a former church member for allegedly brainwashing and holding her young daughter against her will.
Dispute with the New People's Army
The communist New People's Army has accused Quiboloy of being behind the massacre of K'lata-Bagobos leader Datu Domingo Diarog and his family on April 29, 2008, for allegedly refusing to sell two hectares of their property for ₱50,000 to Quiboloy and his sect. The property is within the 700-hectare ancestral domain claimed by the Bagobo people in Tugbok and is adjacent to Quiboloy's walled "prayer mountain" in Tamayong. Diarog's widow said followers of Quiboloy had threatened to evict them from the land and her relatives were even offered a ₱20,000 bounty for Diarog's head. Quiboloy, however, said the charges were "totally false and baseless, if not ridiculous."
While Quiboloy has branded the rebels "mga anak ni Satanas", the NPA has declared him a "warlord in the service of the Gloria Arroyo administration's policies against the peasants and indigenous peoples." Police investigator Ireneo Dalogdog, head of the Tugbok police office, said he had been receiving reports that Diarog was being harassed by armed men associated with Quiboloy, and that Diarog's farmhouse had earlier been razed three times.
2020 ABS-CBN shutdown
In November 2019, Quiboloy was made fun of by Vice Ganda in It’s Showtime! for his claims of stopping the series of earthquakes in Mindanao just by exclaiming, “Stop!”. Vice jokingly challenged Quiboloy to stop the nation's longest-running primetime television show Ang Probinsyano, which has been airing for 5 years already.
Quiboloy reacted irately and criticized Vice for his comments. Although the church leader accepted the challenge, he said that the comedian should not test his ability in stopping earthquakes because he might also “stop the whole network that airs Ang Probinsyano in 4 months’ time”. A church member news anchor and ally of Quiboloy from Sonshine Media Network argued that “not all jokes are funny” and that the public must “respect his own beliefs”.
On May 5, 2020, the National Telecommunications Commission legally ordered ABS-CBN to cease its TV and radio broadcasting after their 25-year broadcast franchise expired the previous day, May 4. The station then officially signed off at 7:52 pm local time the same day.