MANILA: The USA has formally requested the extradition of a Filipino pastor needed on sex-trafficking expenses, the Philippines’ ambassador to Washington stated on Thursday (Aug 6).
Apollo Quiboloy, a self-proclaimed “Appointed Son of God” and ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested within the Philippines in 2024 on human-trafficking expenses.
He faces life in jail if discovered responsible within the case, which accuses him of utilizing girls and baby sect members to promote items and lift funds for his church.
Quiboloy, who pleaded not responsible shortly after his August 2024 arrest, has been held in a Manila jail ever since.
A US grand jury had indicted Quiboloy three years earlier for conspiracy to interact in intercourse trafficking by power, fraud and coercion, intercourse trafficking of kids and bulk money smuggling.
The 2021 US indictment alleges women and girls between the ages of 12 and 25 have been recruited as private assistants for Quiboloy to organize his meals, clear his residence, give him massages and have intercourse with him.
On Thursday, Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez informed AFP the US had formally requested for the pastor to be handed over.
“The formal request has been transmitted to the Dept of Justice,” he stated by way of textual content message, with out offering additional element.
The US Embassy and the Philippine Division of Justice didn’t reply instantly to requests for remark.
Quiboloy was allowed to run for Senate within the nation’s 2025 midterm elections regardless of his incarceration and garnered 5,667,438 votes.
Police stated following his arrest that Quiboloy’s alleged victims have been informed they have been having intercourse with the “Spirit of God” and have been threatened to not inform anybody on ache of being hunted down by “angels of loss of life”.
Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus Christ church stated on the time that members had “freedom of selection” and thus “something that occurs to you … is your personal voluntary will or selection”.
The highly effective sect claims hundreds of thousands of followers within the primarily Catholic Asian nation and owns a tv community.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos stated in 2024 that the federal government was not but seeking to extradite Quiboloy as a result of it was “specializing in the circumstances filed within the Philippines”.
