📷Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez
BUSTED televangelist Apollo Quiboloy is headed to sleepless nights in view of an imminent extradition to the United States over a string of criminal charges for allegedly orchestrating a sex trafficking operation that preyed on victims as young as 12, using threats of “eternal damnation” and physical abuse.
According to Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez, the extradition of Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) founder Pastor Apollo Quiboloy to the US is “inevitable.”
“If Pastor Quiboloy is guilty, he has to face the music in the Philippines. But here, he also faces numerous cases and witnesses coming forward openly, citing instances of abuse, human trafficking, sex trafficking, and child abuse connected to the pastor. All these need to go through the justice system,” Ambassador Romualdez was quoted as saying in a television news aired over a GMA.
“So at some point in time we’ll have to face up to it also that the extradition is inevitable,” he added.
Quiboloy, who surrendered to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Davao City on September 8 after two weeks of police operation inside the KOJC compound, is currently detained inside the Philippine National Police (PNP) custodial center in Camp Crame in Quezon City.
The KOJC leader is facing a string of criminal charges including child abuse, qualified human trafficking, and rape among others, earlier pleaded not guilty.
Before the criminal cases were filed in the Philippine courts, US prosecutors indicted Quiboloy, along with others, for allegedly orchestrating a sex trafficking operation that preyed on victims as young as 12, using threats of “eternal damnation” and physical abuse for which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) included his name in its wanted list of fugitives.
He has been accused in the US of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking using force, fraud, and coercion, as well as sex trafficking of children, among other charges. Two other co-accused individuals – American citizens Teresita Dandan and Helen Panilag, in the US cases against Quiboloy, remain at large.
Quiboloy previously demanded that the Marcos administration give him written assurance that the US would not interfere in his legal battle in the country for him to surrender. His conditions however did not sit well with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who aptly described his demands as immaterial.
In a related development, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said they are expecting the US to file an extradition request for Quiboloy very soon but the KOJC leader should face the charges filed against him in the Philippines first. (ANGEL F. JOSE)
