Apollo Quiboloy had announced that he was going into hiding for fear of “kidnapping or assassination” by the U.S. and Philippine governments.
A Filipino pastor wanted in the United States for child sex trafficking has been arrested, the country’s interior minister announced Sunday, September 8, two weeks after the start of a manhunt for the politically connected preacher. “Apollo Quiboloy has been arrested”Minister Benjamin Abalos said on his official Facebook page, without giving further details. He was charged with human trafficking by a Philippine court.
Apollo Quiboloy, “Son of God” self-proclaimed and former President Rodrigo Duterte’s spiritual adviser, founded the sect called Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) in the Philippines. Nicolas Torre, the regional police chief who led the operation to find him at the sect’s headquarters in the southern city of Davao, confirmed his arrest at a press conference.
Some 2,000 police officers were deployed to the sect’s headquarters on August 24 to enforce an arrest warrant. However, Torre gave no details regarding the circumstances of his arrest. “It’s a concerted effort by everyone involved.”he simply indicated. “Let’s be proud, today we did our job”he said.
The threat of “eternal damnation”
In November 2021, the U.S. Justice Department charged Apollo Quiboloy and two other men with sexually exploiting women between the ages of 12 and 25, between 2002 and at least 2018. According to the Justice Department indictment, the pastor, then 71, brought to the United States “girls and young women” as personal assistants before forcing them to have sex with him or face a “eternal damnation”. Some then had to raise money to finance the “lavish lifestyle” leaders of the group including Apollo Quiboloy, the American ministry had indicated at the time.
In February, in an audio message posted on his Sonshine Media television YouTube channel, Apollo Quiboloy announced that he was going into hiding for fear of“a kidnapping or an assassination” from the U.S. and Philippine governments.
