Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, Wanted for Child Trafficking Crimes, Surrenders after Two-Week Standoff
- Milton Quintanilla Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Published Sep 10, 2024
Philippines-based megachurch pastor Apollo Quiboloy surrendered to police Sunday at his church's 74-acre compound in Davao City following a two-week standoff to answer to child sex trafficking and other charges.
"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," the pastor's attorney, Israelito Torreon, explained in a statement.
Although Quiboloy and his followers deny the charges of child abuse and human trafficking against him, he is also on the FBI's Most Wanted list for similar charges in the United States.
In 2021, an indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice 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."
Quiboloy also alleged that sex with him was a "privilege" and "God's will."
Late last month, some 2,000 local police officers sought to arrest Quiboloy at his Kingdom of Jesus Christ, but he reportedly hid inside an underground bunker where investigators found it difficult to locate him.
During the investigation, 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, according to The Daily Tribune. Confidential police sources told the publication that the basement is where investigators believe Quiboloy held women against their will and abused them.
"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 in his statement.
"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.
As The Christian Post previously reported, the megachurch pastor claims to have 4 million tithing followers in the Philippines and 2 million more overseas. His television station reaches 600 million viewers worldwide. He is also a longtime friend of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.
During a 2010 interview with ABC News, Quiboly said every member of his kingdom shared his wealth and was 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 whatever God gives them 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 at the time. "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."
Photo Credit: ©YouTube/DW News
