Cult probed for recruitment of minors

Philippine Daily Inquirer/January 19, 2005
By Vincent Cabreza and Donna Demetillo

Baguio City, Benguet, Philippines -- A mother's plea to reclaim custody of her daughter from a television evangelist has made a Mindanao-based Church ministry the target of an investigation by the city council and government social workers.

Councilor Jose Molintas presented to the council on Monday a documented report on Erlinda Rillon, 60, mother of Arlene, a 19-year-old recruit of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, Name Above Every Name Inc.

Rillon claimed that Church founder and leader, Apollo Quiboloy, had been luring teenagers and young adults from Baguio to operate Quiboloy's ministry in Barangay Catitipan in Davao City.

Rillon said she wrote Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman about her situation, after learning that Quiboloy had asserted the separation of Church and state in rebuffing government mediators.

Several evangelical groups in Baguio have also started a letter campaign, on Rillon's request, to ask Quiboloy to release Arlene.

Joy Adaclog, the social worker assigned to Arlene's case, said the Department of Social Welfare and Development had asked Quiboloy to allow government psychologists to counsel Arlene "in the spirit of Christianity."

She has yet to receive a response from Davao.

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