MANILA, Philippines – For over three decades, Teresita Valdehueza, a former follower of doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy, remained silent, believing that the sexual acts the pastor committed against her were normal. She felt deceived and manipulated.
Testifying before the Senate on Wednesday, October 23, Valdehueza recounted her harrowing experience as a founding member of the Quiboloy-led Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC). She read her lengthy statement in the same room where her alleged abuser was.
It marked Quiboloy’s first appearance before the Senate seven months since the committee on women, led by Senator Risa Hontiveros, began its probe into allegations of “large-scale human trafficking, rape, sexual abuse, violence, and child abuse” within KOJC.
“Fear consumed me, and I remained silent…. It was only when I was out of the group that I finally clearly understood that the man I had believed to be God’s chosen and holy was an impostor, oppressor, and deceiver. He manipulated me using his authority and power as God’s anointed,” Valdehueza said. She began as a member of KOJC when she was 17 in 1980, and left the ministry in September 1999.
Valdehueza explained that she initially believed everything was fine, describing her experience as “answered prayers” from God until 1993, when she was allegedly sexually abused by Quiboloy. She recalled receiving a call from the doomsday preacher, who was in Cebu at the time, inviting her to join him for a supposed “divine revelation” intended for her. He instructed her to travel from Manila to Cebu, where he would share this “important message.”
While in Cebu, she was asked by the pastor to stay with him in the same hotel room. She asked if she could sleep in the sofa but the pastor, she said, insisted she should sleep beside him in bed.
“Sleeping beside a man I believed to be chosen by God was for me then a great privilege, an opportunity for a sinner like me. But what followed shattered my sense of faith and trust. Without a word, after turning off the light, he embraced me, undressed me, and violated me with his lustful act that left me in shock and speechless,” she said.
Puzzled by the sexual acts committed by the pastor she once admired, Valdehueza said that Quiboloy explained that other women had experienced the same, claiming it was God’s way for them to “surrender their body, soul, and spirit.”
“I felt betrayed — by my faith, by him, and even perhaps by myself. I began questioning whether what had happened was indeed God’s will or simply a gross abuse of power,” she said.
The alleged sexual abuse continued over the following years, and Valdehueza sensed that something was wrong. When she finally had the chance to confront her feelings, she wrote to Quiboloy in 1994, openly expressing her emotional distress.
“I was honest about how deeply shocked I was to learn of his life beyond the pulpit. The man I had revered as a holy figure was, in reality, an ordinary mortal one who had exploited my genuine commitment and dedication to God. My faith wavered, and everything I had once believed was shattered,” she said.
She did not receive a “harsh and violent” response to her letter, and instead got promoted in KOJC. “I was appointed National Crusade Coordinator, National Logistics Coordinator, and Luzon Area Administrator, all at once. This was a sudden and significant promotion from my previous role,” she said.
Valdehueza preoccupied herself with work but “fear gripped” her every time Apollo Quiboloy would come to Manila. She was then sent to the United States to lead a fund-raising activity.
“I never wanted to go to America because inside of me were, unresolved spiritual issues, confused mind that bothered me always, but my visa was approved. I then knew that I was to lead and plan for the fund raising to be done in America,” she said.
P10-15 million quota
During the Senate hearing, Valdehueza shared that she had a quota of raising P10 million to P15 million to support operations. She organized Christmas caroling to generate funds, adding that KOJC “recruited and trafficked young people from Mindanao and Visayas to carol in the provinces of Luzon and in cities across the National Capital Region.”
“Marami pong estudyante na Nobyembre pa lang kailangan nang mag-absent sa paaralan at ang iba hindi na nakabalik sa pag-aaral dahil inuna ang simbahan, inuna ang pag-caroling, inuna ang paghanap ng pera. Nobody questioned where our income was spent,” she said.
(Many students need to be absent from school as early as November, and some never return to their studies because they prioritize the church, caroling, and finding money.)
Valdehueza, who was in the US at the time, said that KOJC officials noticed her “indifference.” They accused her of “secretly” sending money to her family in Manila and of tempting and fornicating with KOJC ministers. She said she was forced to write a lengthy letter detailing her alleged sins, without implicating Quiboloy, as instructed.
“My exaggerated story was then distributed to all his leaders and ministers and they believed I was that filthy, I was a pervert and I was wicked, painting me as the sole guilty party, while Quiboloy remained innocent. Little did I know this confession would lead to my condemnation within the ministry,” she recalled.
As punishment, she was sent back to the Philippines in 1998 when she was told to do “prayer and fasting in the guise of spiritual discipline.”
“It took me seven months to suffer hunger and isolation in the mountain of Tamayong, Calinan, Davao City. They placed me in a small, dark, elevated room beside the kitchen, separated only by amakan walls,” she said.
In January 1999, she sent a resignation letter to Quiboloy but it was not accepted. In September of the same year, she again submitted a resignation letter but Quiboloy declined it again. “I decided to leave without asking for permission, determined to free myself from his control.”
‘Jezebel’
Valdehueza said that Quiboloy destroyed her name, using his pulpit to broadcast how filthy and evil she was. She was called by the doomsday preacher as “Jezebel, the temptress.”
“This became a pattern kung may mga workers na may alam sa kanyang sikretong buhay at aalis sa kanyang kingdom, sila ay akusahan ng napakaraming kasalanan. He would always exaggerate their weaknesses, at ipaniwala sa mga workers at members na sila ay umalis dahil may mga marumi at mga napakasamang mga tao,” she said.
(This became a pattern: if there were workers who knew about his secret life and wanted to leave his kingdom, they were accused of numerous sins. He would always exaggerate their weaknesses and convince the workers and members that they left because they were corrupt and very bad people.)
In November 2021, Valdehueza said that Quiboloy “once again maligned me, broadcasting nationally and internationally that I was a fornicator and an immoral woman.”
Valdehueza was the latest alleged victim of Quiboloy who came forward with testimonies of sexual abuse. (READ: 2 Ukrainians, Filipino woman accuse Quiboloy of sexual abuse at Senate hearing)
“Wala pong katotohanan ang kanilang sinabi. Kung mayroon po silang charges na criminal laban sa akin, malaya po silang mag-file ng kaso at doon po sa tamang forum ko sasagutin,” Quiboloy said, when asked by Hontiveros to react to the testimonies made by his alleged victims.
(There is no truth to what they said. If they have any criminal charges against me, they are free to file a case, and I will respond in the appropriate forum.)
Quiboloy has been in the custody of the Philippine National Police since September 8, following weeks of extensive operations at the KOJC compound in Davao City. His arrest was the culmination of months of planning, highlighted by a two-week standoff between the police and Quiboloy’s supporters.
The doomsday preacher faces charges of sexual abuse of a minor and child abuse. Quiboloy is also wanted in the US for sexual trafficking. He recently filed his certificate of candidacy for the 2025 Senate race. – Rappler.com