August 2024

The students of Jose Maria College Foundation, Inc. (JMCFI) called on the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the Legal Education Board (LEB), and the Department of Education (DepEd) to stand on the right side of history amid the ongoing tensions caused by a police raid in search for Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader Apollo C. Quiboloy.

“Your silence amid these attacks on academic freedom and the right to education is complicit in emboldening these abuses,” a group statement issued on Wednesday read.

In a powerful call for peace, sobriety, and mutual respect among the residents of Davao City, Davao Archbishop Romulo G. Valles, D.D. on Wednesday expressed alarm over the prolonged search for Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Apollo C. Quiboloy since Saturday dawn.

“The prolonged search being conducted, coupled with the overwhelming presence of law enforcers in a place dedicated for religious worship, and for the education of the youth, is alarming and troubling, as it touches some sensitive issues on religious freedom,” Valles said in a statement.

Aug. 27 was the day Vice-President Sara Duterte crossed her Rubicon.

Vice-President Inday threw all caution to the winds, not giving in an inch in her verbal jousts with 47 solons itching to skin her alive. In what seemed like a coming out party to many Filipinos, the country’s most popular elected official made it clear that she would not be a party to her own political funeral.

Former Senator and Police Chief Panfilo Lacson urged the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday to keep critical details of the search for Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader Apollo C. Quiboloy under wraps.

Lacson’s comments, shared on social media, came in the wake of a high-profile raid involving around 2,000 police officers that has intensified since August 24 at the sprawling 30-hectare KJC Compound in Davao City.

If there were any doubts that President Bongbong Marcos is his father's son, the viciousness in the hunt for Pastor Apollo Quiboloy removed all that.

Only a cold, ruthless mind could send Gen. Nicolas Torre III on that heartless mission to get Quiboloy at all costs –precisely what the latter is doing. Torre does not mind if he has been cast as the villain in this miserable witch-hunt, but there is a need to clear the air that he was merely sent there by someone higher.

I have no love lost for Apollo Quiboloy. I don't like him as an uber wealthy evangelist. I think he's arrogant, bordering on the insincere. His words sound preachy at best.

And the charges against him? Competent courts should determine his guilt or innocence, which is really more than I can say of all this brouhaha over his capture. Isn't this supposed to be a simple police procedural matter, to be enforced with minimal warm bodies sans the limelight?

By Dr. Lorraine Marie T. Badoy

There is a time to be silent. And a time to speak up.

When the very institutions and people mandated to protect us are the very same ones that bend and break our laws with shameless impunity and who have made it clear to us that our country is no longer a country ruled by laws but by the whims and caprices of powerful abusers, then the time to be silent is over.

Silence means we are complicit in these great crimes perpetrated on us as a nation.

It’s getting obvious.

Haven’t you noticed how some self-styled experts are raising hell over supposed errors in the book “Isang Kaibigan” written by Vice-President Inday Sara Duterte? They who have been consistently silent all this time on the revelations of the drug use of President Bongbong Marcos?

Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday said that while political separation is inevitable, respect and civility should always prevail.

“Ang hindi ko nagugustuhan ay iyong pambabastos. Pwede naman tayo maghiwalay sa pulitika, wag lang iyong maging bastos (What I don't like is profanity. We can separate from politics, just don't be rude)," Duterte added.

Vice President Sara Duterte said Saturday the accusations of former customs intelligence officer Jimmy Gubanagainst her husband and brother were clearly "political harassment" and "political attacks."