MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News) [Hong Kong]
August 10, 2026
By Union of Catholic News reporter
Apollo Quiboloy fled US in 2021 to avoid arrest after a grand jury charged him with sexual abuse, trafficking and fraud
The Philippine government is reviewing a request for the extradition of Apollo Quiboloy, a controversial pastor and founder of a religious sect accused of a series of crimes including sexual abuse, trafficking and fraud, says a state official.
In a televised briefing on Aug. 10, Claire Castro, a press officer of Malacañáng Palace, the president’s official residence and workplace, said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants the request for the extradition of Quiboloy to be studied carefully.
The decision will be made in a “couple of weeks,” she said.
The response came four days after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) formally lodged an extradition request for Quiboloy on Aug. 6, Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Analyn Ratonel said in a media statement.
Quiboloy, 76, known to have close ties with former President Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested following a massive two-week manhunt by the police in September 2024 after evading arrest for years.
He remains incarcerated at the Pasig City Jail in the national capital Manila.
The founder of the neo-Christian sect, Kingdom of Jesus Christ, Quiboloy fled the US after a US federal grand jury indicted him for a series of crimes in November 2021, and the FBI included him in the Wanted List.
According to the FBI, Quiboloy is charged with conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; conspiracy; and bulk cash smuggling.
He was involved in various crimes such as using underage females as personal assistants, or “pastorals,” the FBI said, adding that the victims prepared his meals, cleaned his residences, gave him massages and were required to have sex with the pastor in what the pastorals called “night duty.”
This is the second extradition request from the US for Quiboloy after the first one made last August, according to government sources.
Nicolas Torre III, former Philippine National Police chief, who led the police operation to arrest Quiboloy two years ago, said the development will pave the way for justice for the victims.
Every significant milestone in this case “reminds us of one enduring principle: no one is above the law,” he told UCA News.
Quiboloy and his supporters have repeatedly denied the allegations.
Ferdinand Topacio, a legal counsel for the accused pastor, told journalists on Aug. 8 that they have not yet received any summons or official notice that extradition proceedings have begun.
He described the pastor’s extradition as “extremely unfeasible.”
“Unless our government again chooses to meekly surrender its jurisdiction to a foreign power. As always, we are ready to defend the rights and interests of Pastor Quiboloy under the Constitution and our other laws,” Topacio added.
Lawyer and activist Aaron Pedrosa said the US “will have to wait as Quiboloy should first be held to account before the Philippine courts, before a Filipino judge, under Philippine laws.”
“The serious criminal indictment against him, if proven, should remind the public, especially his most ardent followers, that the self-appointed son of God has used his influence, position, and network to perpetrate crimes,” Pedrosa told UCA News.
In a statement to the media, Senator Risa Hontiveros, the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, said: “It’s about time for Apollo Quiboloy to be extradited.”