Wanted for child sex crimes, megachurch pastor Apollo Quiboloy surrenders after weeks-long manhunt
After a contentious two-week standoff with Philippines police at his church's 74-acre compound in Davao City, popular televangelist and Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Apollo Quiboloy surrendered to authorities Sunday to answer to child sex trafficking and other charges.
The pastor's attorney, Israelito Torreon, said in a statement that Quiboloy surrendered because he couldn't stand the suffering of his followers much longer on church grounds.
"This is to inform the Filipino People that Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy decided to surrender to the PNP/AFP because he does not want the lawless violence to continue to happen in the KOJC Compound and he could not bear to witness a second longer the sufferings that his flock was experiencing for many days," Torreon said.
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Quiboloy, who faces charges of child abuse and human trafficking, which he and his followers have denied, is also on the FBI's Most Wanted list for similar charges in the United States.
An indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2021 charged Quiboloy and two of his top administrators with trafficking young women and girls in the U.S. who were coerced into having sex with him under threats of "eternal damnation."
The controversial megachurch pastor allegedly claimed that sex with him was a "privilege" and "God's will."
Late last month, some 2,000 local police officers descended on the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound to arrest Quiboloy. But he reportedly hid inside an underground bunker where investigators were unable to locate him.
PNP officers discovered an elaborate network of rooms, including a number of bedrooms, in a multilevel basement of his mansion on the church's compound, The Daily Tribune reported. Confidential police sources told the publication that the basement is where investigators believe he held women against their will and abused them.
In his statement Sunday, Torreon said Quiboloy was waiting to hear from his attorneys on what the best legal remedies would be available to him to fight the charges, but the police raid at his church disrupted that process.
"Heart-wrenching and mind-boggling events transpired where a warrant of arrest has been turned into a license to convert his beloved KOJC Compound into a police garrison, the sacred KOJC Cathedral being desecrated, the JMC School turned into a mining pit, his followers as recipients of brutalities, one of whom even died, scores injured, many got arbitrarily arrested, vehicles unilaterally confiscated, all of which caused Pastor Apollo Quiboloy's heart to bleed," Torreon said.
"Hence, even if he has the right to await the result of the legal remedies being resorted to by his lawyers, he decided to make the ultimate sacrifice by surrendering himself to the PNP and AFP," he added.
Torreon listed a number of high-ranking members of the local security force who convinced him to surrender.
Quiboloy is a longtime friend of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.
He claims to have 4 million tithing followers in the Philippines, 2 million more overseas and reaches 600 million viewers worldwide through his TV station.
In a 2010 interview with ABC News, Quiboloy said every member of his kingdom shared his wealth and is welcome to stay at his mansion. He further noted that God revealed to him in 1983 that he should own a jet and argued that everyone should accept what they get from God in life, even if it is poverty.
"If it is not God's will for me to have these things I have, you can take it away," he said. "It is God's will that we follow. ... If he wanted me to live like a rat, if he wanted me to live in wealth or in poverty, it does not matter to me. Put me there, and I'll be happy as long as it's God's will."
Since Quiboloy's arrest, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told reporters he won't receive any special treatment.
"There is no special treatment," Marcos said Monday. "We will treat him like any other arrested person and respect his rights."
Marcos said even though Quiboloy's legal team had set conditions for his surrender, including a guarantee he would not be extradited to the U.S. to face charges, they are not in a place to negotiate terms.
"Putting conditions is not an option for someone who is a fugitive," Marcos said. "It is with some relief that I can say that this phase of the operation is over. We will now leave Quiboloy to the judicial system."
The Philippines Department of Justice stated that the pastor will have to face the domestic legal system before any extradition request by the U.S. is granted.
The 2021 charges in the U.S. against Quiboloy are an expansion of allegations made in early 2020 against three Los Angeles-based administrators of the church. The allegations name nine defendants, including the now 74-year-old Quiboloy, and his two administrators, Teresita Tolibas Dandan, also known as "Tessie," and "Sis Ting," now 62, of Davao City.
The "international administrator" was one of the top overseers of KOJC and the Glendale-based Children's Joy Foundation in the U.S.
The other top administrator, Felina Salinas, also known as "Sis Eng Eng," 53, of Kapolei, Hawaii, allegedly collected and secured passports and other documents from KOJC workers in Hawaii. She also allegedly directed funds solicited from church members to church officials in the Philippines.
Quiboloy, Dandan and Salinas are charged in count one of a superseding indictment, which alleges the sex trafficking conspiracy. Each of them is charged in at least three of five substantive counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion.
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