Philippine authorities arrest church leader accused of sex trafficking | Crime News

Apollo Quiboloy, an ally of former President Duterte, faces child sex trafficking charges in the Philippines and the United States.

An influential Filipino pastor accused of sex trafficking and a longtime ally of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested by authorities, the government said.

Interior Minister Benhur Abalos announced the arrest of Apollo Quiboloy in a brief social media post on Sunday. However, he did not reveal where the pastor was arrested.

But the self-proclaimed “Owner of the Universe” and “Called Son of God” was believed to be hiding in a bunker on the sprawling grounds of his church, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), in the southern city of Davao, Duterte’s stronghold.

In a press conference, Davao regional police director Nicolas Torre confirmed Quiboloy's arrest. He said he had been informed that Quiboloy had surrendered to the authorities.

In June this year, the Philippine Department of Justice filed charges against the pastor for sexual abuse, and a court issued an arrest warrant for him. Five other members of his church were also charged with human trafficking and other child abuse cases.

The previous Sunday, the government had stationed at least 3,000 police officers on the church grounds, where authorities have been conducting an operation for two weeks.

Duterte and his allies had criticized the attempts by large numbers of police officers to arrest Quiboloy as excessive.

During his tenure as mayor of Davao City and later as president, Duterte frequently appeared on Quiboloy's television network to promote the police-led drug raids that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead.

The pastor said his situation in the Philippines became “complicated” after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. came to power in 2022.

He claimed that the Marcos government had “conspired” with the US authorities – FBI and CIA – to “hand me over to the Americans”.

Quiboloy had previously asked the government for a guarantee that he would not be extradited in exchange for his extradition.

He said that if his demands were met, he would “show up and take care of all these cases, no matter where you take them here in the Philippines.”

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Quiboloy with sex trafficking of girls and women between the ages of 12 and 25 who worked as personal assistants or “chaplains” and were allegedly forced to have sex with him.