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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
June 30, 2025 | 4:09pm
Sen. Risa Hontiveros answers questions from the media in the Senate on June 30, 2025.
Joseph Vidal / Senate Social Media Unit
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros said the whistleblower who recanted his testimony against doomsday pastor Apollo Quiboloy had sought help from her office just days before the release of a viral video in which he accused her of bribery.
Michael Maurilio, also known as “Rene,” was a witness in the Senate probe into Quiboloy. In the video that circulated widely on social media, he accused Hontiveros of paying him to testify against the pastor—an allegation the senator firmly denied.
Kidnapping fears. Hontiveros told reporters that Maurilio had contacted her office on June 22 and 23, saying he feared being kidnapped. She presented screenshots of their exchanges to the media and stressed that it was Maurilio who first reached out.
“We took his messages seriously. We forwarded them to the PNP in Davao for immediate action, and when the PNP moved, the video came out,” she said, speaking in a mix of English and Filipino.
Hontiveros explained that during the Senate hearings, Maurilio was under the care of the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA), which secured him within the Senate premises. But once the probe ended, OSAA’s responsibility did as well.
After that, Maurilio stayed with partner church and civil society groups. He eventually left the care of these groups, the senator said.
She added that Maurilio had also requested financial assistance from her office at one point, but the request was declined.
Witness pressure, recantation. According to Hontiveros, Maurilio had earlier informed her team that members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, Quiboloy’s religious group, were pressuring him to retract his Senate testimony.
“This is the real pattern here: After testifying in the Senate, witnesses are harassed and threatened, and then, suddenly, flipped. So, let’s call this what it is: Witness tampering. Fake news. Psychological warfare,” she said.
While the senator said she still hopes for Maurilio’s safety, she said that he must answer for his actions. His retraction, the senator pointed out, has also put other witnesses at risk.
Hontiveros said she plans to file cases with the National Bureau of Investigation to determine who was responsible for the production and dissemination of the video.
Video spread by pro-Duterte pages, senator
Maurilio’s video has been widely circulated on pro-Duterte social media pages, including a post shared by Hontiveros’ Senate colleague, Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa.
“Para sa akin, kaming mga senador, dapat nag-share kami ng katotohanan. Dapat hindi kami nag-share ng fake news. O tulad ng mga AI generated video. Dapat hindi kami nagpapadala o lalong hindi kami mismo ang nag-share ng anumang fake news,” Hontiveros said.
(For me, we senators should share the truth, not fake news, or AI-generated videos. We should not be carried away, much less be the ones sharing fake news.)
