An influential pastor wanted in the US on child trafficking charges has been arrested in the Philippines, after a 16-day manhunt across a vast compound that included a network of underground tunnels and dozens of buildings.
Apollo Quiboloy, the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) church, who claims to be the “appointed son of God”, and was a spiritual adviser of the former president Rodrigo Duterte, is facing various charges, including in the US where he is wanted over alleged trafficking of women and girls as young as 12. According to the FBI wanted list, victims were allegedly recruited to work as personal assistants, or “pastorals”, and were required to have sex with Quiboloy in what was called “night duty”.
Quiboloy, who is at least 74, has denied the allegations against him.
Last month, 2,000 police officers, who were later backed by 1,000 reinforcements, stormed the KOJC’s 30-hectare (74 acre) compound in a search for the pastor, prompting his supporters to take to the streets. Quiboloy is politically influential and his church claims to have millions of members. He is a close friend of Duterte.
The Philippine’s national police spokesperson, Jean Fajardo, said Quiboloy handed himself over after he was warned he should surrender within 24 hours.
Quiboloy and four others were flown to Manila on Sunday night and were being held under high security at a detention centre at the national police headquarters in Quezon City.
The country’s president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, said on Monday morning that Manila had not yet received an official request from the US regarding the extradition of Quiboloy, and that cases filed against the pastor locally must be dealt with first. Quiboloy has previously demanded a written guarantee from the government that he would not be handed over to the US as a condition for his surrender.
Fajardo said: “The Philippine national police gave an ultimatum for them to surrender, otherwise we would raid a particular building, where we’ve been barred from entering.”
Police had resorted to digging a tunnel to locate Quiboloy within the KOJC compound, according to local media. The site has a network of underground spaces, a hanger and a taxiway that leads directly to Davao’s international airport.
Among the more than 40 structures is a “cathedral”, a school and an unfinished stadium to accommodate 75,000 people.
Quiboloy’s arrest underlined increasingly tense relations between the Duterte and Marcos families. Duterte’s daughter Sara is the vice-president, having ran on a joint ticket with Marcos in elections in 2022. However, relations have soured as the families prepare to compete for power in future elections.
This month, Sara Duterte visited the KOJC compound in Davao, her family’s stronghold, and apologised to Quiboloy’s supporters for her past alliance with Marcos. She and her father were critical of the police hunt for Quiboloy.
Quiboloy faces cases at home as well as in the US. Courts in the Philippines had issued arrest warrants against him for qualified human trafficking, as well as child and sexual abuse.
The Philippine Senate also ordered Quiboloy’s arrest for refusing to appear at hearings that were investigating allegations of such abuses.
Quiboloy was indicted in the US in 2021 on charges including sex trafficking, including of children, and bulk cash smuggling. According to the FBI, he is wanted over his alleged participation in a labour trafficking scheme that brought church members to the US “via fraudulently obtained visas, and forced the members to solicit donations for a bogus charity, donations that actually were used to finance church operations and the lavish lifestyles of its leaders.
“Members who proved successful at soliciting for the church allegedly were forced to enter into sham marriages or obtain fraudulent student visas to continue soliciting in the United States year-round,” said the FBI.
The preacher has denied the allegations against him, saying former workers were being paid to fabricate stories. “I am not hiding from this case because I am guilty. No. I am avoiding it because I am protecting myself,” he said earlier this year, according to a report by the news website Rappler.
After the US indictment in 2021, Quiboloy suggested the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was a punishment for his treatment, saying: “The Delta virus variant of Covid-19 is only an introduction. If you keep on hurting, persecuting, and harming the appointed son and the kingdom, you will see much worse than the Omicron variant.”
In a statement published by local media on Monday,his lawyer said the pastor had surrendered to end the “lawless violence” in the KOJC compound. “He could not bear to witness a second longer the sufferings that his flock was experiencing for many days,” Israelito Torreon said.