A Filipino preacher accused of sexual abuse and human trafficking surrendered to authorities on Sunday at a religious complex in the southern Philippines and was then flown to the capital, Manila, where he was placed in police detention.
Who is Apollo Quiboloy?
Apollo Quiboloy and four other co-accused surrendered in the vast religious headquarters of their group in Davao city after the police gave a one-day ultimatum for them to give up. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Monday that evangelist preacher will not be given special treatment following his arrest on Sunday, after a weeks-long police search for the celebrity pastor.
“There is no special treatment,” Marcos told reporters on Monday. “We will treat him like any other arrested person and respect his rights.” “We will demonstrate once again that our judicial system in the Philippines is active, vibrant and working,” he added.
Flown on Air Force C-130 plane
Quiboloy and his co-accused were flown on a Philippine Air Force C-130 plane to the capital Sunday night and locked up in a heavily guarded detention center at the national police headquarters, where their mugshots and fingerprints were taken, police spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said in a news briefing.
“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,” Fajardo said, adding that the warning led to their peaceful surrender.
Quiboloy in hiding
Quiboloy went into hiding earlier this year after a Philippine court ordered his arrest and several others on allegations of suspicion of child and sexual abuse and human trafficking, Fajarto said. The Philippine Senate separately ordered Quiboloy’s arrest for refusing to appear in public committee hearings that were looking into criminal allegations against him.
Earlier, Marcos Jr. had urged Quiboloy to surrender and assured him of fair treatment by authorities. The preacher and his lawyer denied the allegations against him, saying they were fabricated by critics and former members who were removed from the religious group.
2021 US indictment
In 2021, United States federal prosecutors announced the indictment of Quiboloy for allegedly having sex with women and underage girls who faced threats of abuse and “eternal damnation” unless they catered to the self-proclaimed “son of God.”
Quiboloy and two of his top administrators were among nine people named in a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury and unsealed in November 2021. It contained a raft of charges, including conspiracy, sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, marriage fraud, money laundering, cash smuggling and visa fraud.
2,000 police personnel raided Quiboloy compound
The US Embassy in Manila referred requests for comments to Philippine authorities. Last month, about 2,000 police backed by riot squads raided the vast religious compound of Quiboloy in Davao in a chaotic operation as large numbers of his followers turned up to oppose the raid.
The police brought equipment that could detect people hiding in underground tunnels but did not find him in the 75-acre compound that includes a cathedral, a stadium, a school, a residential area, a hangar and a taxiway leading to Davao International Airport.
In 2019, Quiboloy claimed he stopped a major earthquake from hitting the southern Philippines. He was also a close supporter and spiritual adviser of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is being probed by the International Criminal Court in connection with the extrajudicial killings of thousands of drug suspects.
(With agency inputs)
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