MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino preacher accused of sexual abuse and human trafficking in the Philippines and similar charges in the United States surrendered Sunday to authorities in his religious complex in the south and flown to Manila where he was put in police detention, officials said.
Apollo Quiboloy and four other co-accused surrendered in the vast religious headquarters of their group, called Kingdom of Jesus Christ, in Davao city after the police gave a 24-hour ultimatum for them to give up, police said. Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos earlier said Quiboloy was caught by authorities.
Quiboloy and his co-accused were flown on a Philippine air force C-130 plane to the capital Sunday night and locked up in a heavily guarded detention center at the national police headquarters, where their mugshots and fingerprints were taken, police spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said in a news briefing.
“The Philippine National Police gave an ultimatum for them to surrender, otherwise, we would raid a particular building, where we’ve been barred from entering,” Fajardo said, adding that the warning led to their peaceful surrender.
Quiboloy went into hiding earlier this year after a Philippine court ordered his arrest and several others on allegations of suspicion of child and sexual abuse and human trafficking, Fajarto said. The Philippine Senate separately ordered Quiboloy’s arrest for refusing to appear in public committee hearings that were looking into criminal allegations against him.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had urged Quiboloy to surrender and assured him of fair treatment by authorities.
The preacher and his lawyer denied the allegations against him, saying they were fabricated by critics and former members who were removed from the religious group.
In 2021, United States federal prosecutors announced the indictment of Quiboloy for allegedly having sex with women and underage girls who faced threats of abuse and “eternal damnation” unless they catered to the self-proclaimed “son of God.”
Quiboloy and two of his top administrators were among nine people named in a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury and unsealed in November 2021. It contained a raft of charges, including conspiracy, sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, marriage fraud, money laundering, cash smuggling and visa fraud.
The U.S. Embassy in Manila referred requests for comments to Philippine authorities.
Last month, about 2,000 police backed by riot squads raided the vast religious compound of Quiboloy in Davao in a chaotic operation as large numbers of his followers turned up to oppose the raid.
The police brought equipment that could detect people hiding in underground tunnels but did not find him in the 30-hectare (75-acre) compound that includes a cathedral, a stadium, a school, a residential area, a hangar and a taxiway leading to Davao International Airport.
In 2019, Quiboloy claimed he stopped a major earthquake from hitting the southern Philippines.
He was also a close supporter and spiritual adviser of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is being investigated by the International Criminal Court in connection with the extrajudicial killings by police of thousands of mostly poor drug suspects.
Jim Gomez, The Associated Press