Televangelist Apollo Quiboloy wanted for sex trafficking will run for Senate in Philippines
Televangelist and Kingdom of Jesus Christ founder and leader Apollo Quiboloy, who surrendered to authorities after a contentious two-week effort to arrest him for child sex trafficking and other charges, has registered to run for a seat in the Philippines Senate next year.
Mark Tolentino, an attorney for Quiboloy, announced on Facebook Tuesday that he filed the televangelist’s certificate of candidacy to run for Senate.
“He wants to be a part of the solution to the problems of our country. He is running because of God and our beloved Philippines,” Tolentino said, according to a report in The Straits Times.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Tolentino told journalists that Quiboloy intends to focus on promoting laws that are “God-centered, Philippine-centered and Filipino-centered.”
While Quiboloy’s plan to become a senator while facing child sex trafficking charges in the Philippines might seem far fetch, another senator, Jose Estrada, mounted a campaign for the Philippine Senate in May 2022 while on trial for corruption and he was elected. The charges against him were eventually acquitted.
Senate candidates are only disqualified from running for office if they have been convicted of offenses involving “moral turpitude” and have exhausted the appeals process, according to the Philippine election code which reportedly doesn’t list any specific crimes.
Quiboloy, who claims to have 4 million tithing followers in the Philippines and millions more overseas, faces charges of child abuse and human trafficking, which he and his followers have denied. He 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."
In late August, some 2,000 local police officers descended on the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound to arrest Quiboloy. He reportedly hid inside an underground bunker where investigators were unable to locate him for two weeks.
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 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 his arrest, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told reporters he won't receive any special treatment.
"There is no special treatment," Marcos said. "We will treat him like any other arrested person and respect his rights."
Contact: [email protected] Follow Leonardo Blair on Twitter: @leoblair Follow Leonardo Blair on Facebook: LeoBlairChristianPost
