Who is Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, the pastor on the FBI's wanted list?: NPR

He is a famous pastor with long-standing connections to the highest circles of power in the Philippines. But he has been on the run for two weeks and was arrested on Sunday. Pastor Apollo Carreon Quiboloy is accused of multiple counts of human trafficking and child abuse. He is also on the FBI's most wanted list.

A massive police and military force was deployed to hunt Quiboloy on the sprawling grounds of his church, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. The operation began on August 24. Hundreds of the pastor's followers formed human barricades to block the manhunt. Suspecting a network of underground bunkers, authorities deployed sensor devices used after earthquakes to detect signs of underground activity.

The weeks-long conflict has kept Filipinos on edge, reminiscent of the way Americans viewed the Branch Davidian impasse near Waco, Texas. As in that 1993 case, Quiboloy is accused of running a cult and abusing his power to extort sex and money from victims. But in one important respect, Quiboloy is far from a marginal figure: He is a prominent ally and confidant of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

While Quiboloy is accused of serious crimes in the Philippines, he has also been indicted in the United States. The charges relate to a complex scheme of sex trafficking, fraud and money laundering that operated throughout the United States.

Quiboloy finally surrendered to the Philippine authorities on Sunday – and was immediately flown in a C-130 plane from his base in Davao City in the south of the Philippines to the court in Pasig, a suburb of Manila, where he had to face the charges.

Apollo Quiboloy, pastor and founder of the Philippines-based Church of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), was presented to the media a day after his surrender despite facing extensive criminal charges, including human trafficking.

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A key question now is whether Quiboloy could be extradited to the United States, where he faces life in prison if found guilty of the charges against him.

Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said on Monday that Quiboloy must first face the local charges that led to his arrest warrant, noting that “the extradition request has not yet been received.”

Here is an overview of the allegations against Quiboloy:

Girls were given “night duty” – sex with the priest

From 2002 until at least 2018, the U.S. indictment says, Kingdom of Jesus Christ leaders selected girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 25 to serve as “chaplains” — personal assistants to Quiboloy who were also forced to have sex, according to U.S. prosecutors.

The pastors' duties included preparing meals for the pastor and cleaning his homes. According to a California grand jury indictment, the girls also “gave him lotion massages and traveled with him all over the world,” including to the United States.

“Clerks had sex with the defendant Quiboloy according to a schedule” that assigned them “night duty,” the indictment states.

Some of the pastors were minors, the indictment says. Quiboloy and the church leadership are accused of telling the girls and young women that sex with the pastor was God's will and threatening them with physical and verbal abuse “and eternal damnation” if they did not obey.

Church leaders asked the girls to write “declarations of commitment” pledging to dedicate their lives and bodies to Quiboloy as “the appointed son of God,” the indictment says.

Chaplains who performed their duties well were “rewarded with privileges … including trips to tourist destinations such as Disneyland, flights on private jets, use of cell phones, and annual cash payments known as 'honorariums,'” the indictment says. The indictment instead describes the alleged arrangement as a network of commercial sex acts.

Money flowed from the USA to the church, say the authorities

The Kingdom of Jesus Christ has sent employees to Los Angeles and other parts of the United States to raise money on the streets for the Glendale, Calif.-based Children's Joy Foundation, a “sham charity,” as U.S. prosecutors call it. Representatives for the foundation did not respond to a request for comment.

The employees told the public that the donated money would benefit children in poverty, “while in reality the money directly financed the activities of the KOJC and the lavish lifestyles of the KOJC leaders, including the defendants,” the indictment states. It goes on to say that his church controls real estate in Hawaii, Las Vegas and California and that Quiboloy also maintains large residences there.

Many of the workers came on student visas paid for by the church, the indictment says. Some were allegedly arranged into sham marriages with other church workers to allow them to stay in the U.S., the indictment says, accusing leaders of taking the workers' passports and immigration papers.

Citing emails, business books and other documents, prosecutors say the church kept a detailed list of employees sent to cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City. Their effectiveness was allegedly documented in a spreadsheet that listed the amount of money raised each day as well as their immigration status.

Teresita Tolibas Dandan, a high-ranking official of the Church of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, is wanted because, according to a federal indictment, she played a central role in a human trafficking scheme that brought church followers to the United States on fraudulently obtained visas and forced the members to collect donations for a bogus charity.

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The workers were out on the streets year-round as beggars, “working very long hours and often sleeping all night in cars, without the usual access to over-the-counter medications and sometimes without adequate clothing,” the indictment states.

The money looted through these efforts reached the Philippine church in a variety of ways, from electronic transfers to employees carrying about $9,000 in cash wrapped in socks in their luggage, the indictment says. Cash was also shipped in large quantities on private jets, prosecutors say. In February 2018, they allege, Quiboloy himself carried more than $335,000 on a private flight from California to the Philippines.

The pastor is charged in the U.S. indictment along with eight co-defendants: Guia Cabactulan; Marissa Duenas; Amanda Estopare; Teresita Tolibas Dandan; Helen Panilag; Felina Salinas; Bettina Padilla Roces; and Maria De Leon.

The pastor and his co-defendants face charges ranging from operating a regional branch of a human trafficking ring to falsifying official documents.

The church says its leader is in the crosshairs

The church's full name is “Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Name Above Every Name.” Quiboloy is known to his followers as the “called son of God.” His church is based in Davao City – where Duterte was once mayor. The two have a close relationship: Duterte recently offered to handle the church's assets, raising new questions about the legality of widely known financial transactions between the pastor and the former president.

A week after police surrounded the compound, Vice President Sara Duterte – the former president's daughter and, like him, former mayor of Davao City – visited the church to attend celebrations for its 39th anniversary.

Followers of Apollo Quiboloy, founder of the Philippines-based Church of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, held a prayer rally in a Manila park in March after the Philippines said it would file sexual abuse charges against the pastor on March 4.

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The church has a large media landscape and the pastor has been live-streaming video sessions from “Glory Mountain” – the church’s forested property on Mount Apo, the highest mountain in the Philippines. In his Powerline During his program last year, Quiboloy said his church's land was proof that God had “restored the Garden of Eden” in the Far East.

One of the church's core teachings is repentance and the “spirit of obedience to the will of the Father,” its website states. Its reach is wide, and it describes a “Kingdom nation” led by stewards who serve “Kingdom citizens.”