Former KOJC member Teresita Valdehueza attends the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality's inquiry on Oct. 23, 2024 into the reported cases involving religious leader Apollo Quiboloy. Senate Social Media Unit

MANILA — A founding member of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy's Kingdom on Jesus Christ (KOJC) on Wednesday recounted some of the violence she allegedly endured from the religious group, including sexual and physical abuse.

• Who is Apollo Quiboloy?

Facing Quiboloy himself at the Senate, Teresita Valdehueza, who joined KOJC in the 1980s when she was just 17, narrated how she dedicated her life to the Davao City-based church. 

"At the age of 17, I became a member of the church led by this man, Apollo C. Quiboloy, in 1980... In 1988, I made the difficult decision to dedicate my life to his ministry... This choice meant leaving behind my family, my career, and the person I once was," she told the Senate Committee on Women, which is leading the probe into Quiboloy's alleged abuses. 

"Over time, I gained the trust and became a respected worker within the ministry," Valdehueza added.

She said she felt spiritual satisfaction from her work up until 1993, when Quiboloy first started to abuse her sexually.

"He explained that God had revealed to him that I was to partake in God's life through him by surrendering my body, soul, and spirit," the victim said.

The alleged abuse was repeated, and when she finally mustered the courage to bare her distress to Quiboloy, she was promoted as "National Crusade Coordinator, National Logistics Coordinator, and Luzon Area Administrator, all at once."

Valdehueza said these were "a sudden and significant promotion from my previous role."

But Quiboloy and the KOJC leadership allegedly started to turn on her in the late 1990s.

MONTHS-LONG FASTING

In late 1998 to early 1999, Valdehueza said she was subjected to 2 sets of "dry fasting," which she believed were a form of "punishment."

"The fasting they planned for me was beyond my imagination. It took me seven months to suffer hunger and isolation in the mountain of Tamayong, Calinan, Davao City," she said adding they never questioned such order due to their loyalty to the church. 

"It was very much a form of punishment but it was disguised a spiritual discipline... [But] we would always consider it as our sanctification because we were always made to believe that we were sinners and we do accept that we are sinners so we had to go through fasting," she said.

During the first set of dry fasting, she was not allowed to drink water or eat food for the first 10 days, and was fed "am" or lugaw in the succeeding days. She was only able to eat rice on the 39th day.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the panel, could not believe how Valdehueza survived the ordeal.

"I did not even think i would survive... Every morning when I took a bath, parang don ko na lang nalalasap yung tubig kaya i keep taking a bath. Halos [iniinom ko ang tubig pero] natatakot ka namang baka masira yung tyan mo," Valdehueza said.

Valdehueza's second round of fasting took place in February until May 1999.

"Mas lalong punishment yung pangalawa, maybe they saw me alive and still kicking, it was not the intention to really see me alive... Maybe they wanted me to really slowly kill me," she said.

Valdehueza said nobody from the church dared to help her.

"Of course nobody would dare help me because upon instruction, they were not even allowed to talk to me or come near to me," she said.

Valdehueza eventually escaped the church in September 1999.

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