Senator to PNP: Revoke Quiboloy’s gun licenses
SENATOR Ana Theresia “Risa” N. Hontiveros-Baraquel urged the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday to revoke the gun licenses covering at least 19 of wanted televangelist Apollo C. Quiboloy’s firearms.
“Quiboloy is armed and dangerous. His armed soldiers are very much alive and ready to die for him. The PNP should confiscate these firearms at once,” she said in a statement.
Ephraim B. Cortez, president of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, told BusinessWorld in a Viber message that Quiboloy’s firearms licenses must be revoked “for consistency.”
“While it will not facilitate his arrest, it will help neutralize his firepower imagine him having 19 firearms,” Mr. Cortez explained. “It is quite dangerous for one man with such organization to [have] such arsenal at his disposal, given the gravity of the charges he is facing.”
Mr. Quiboloy’s legal counsel, Ferdinand S. Topacio, did not immediately reply to a request for comment on this matter.
“I urge the new PNP chief, Police General Rommel Marbil, to step up. There could be a failure of intelligence if it takes this long to locate Quiboloy’s whereabouts. Two warrants of arrest have been issued but he has not been arrested yet. Along with his private army, he is a threat to peace and order in the country,” Ms. Hontiveros-Baraquel said.
She stressed that Mr. Quiboloy is charged with sexual abuse of a minor and qualified human trafficking, a non-bailable offense.
The PNP said in a press briefing last week that Mr. Quiboloy is not being considered dangerous because he has no history of violent brushes with the law. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana
