Quiboloy 4 others give up to cops in Davao, flown to Manila

(FILES) Apollo Quiboloy, head of The Kingdom of Jesus Christ, a non-Catholic spiritual group, speaks throughout a press convention in Davao Metropolis on Could 23, 2016. | Photograph by MANMAN DEJETO / AFP

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines mentioned it arrested Sunday a pastor needed in the USA for little one intercourse trafficking, two weeks into a large police manhunt for the self-proclaimed “Appointed Son of God”.

Apollo Quiboloy, who has shut relations with former president Rodrigo Duterte, is the founding father of the Philippines-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) church which claims hundreds of thousands of members.

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He was charged by the US Justice Division in 2021 with intercourse trafficking of women and girls between the ages of 12 and 25 to work as private assistants, or “pastorals”, who have been allegedly required to have intercourse with him.

Quiboloy and 4 different sect members have been taken into custody on the church’s compound within the southern metropolis of Davao following negotiations between his representatives and the police and army, Philippine police spokeswoman Colonel Jean Fajardo instructed reporters.

“This afternoon they negotiated their peaceable give up after we gave them a 24-hour ultimatum,” Fajardo mentioned.

4 hours later Quiboloy and the 4 sect members have been flown by army plane to Manila, the place they are going to be detained to face trial for “little one abuse, sexual abuse and certified (human) trafficking”, Fajardo added.

Inside Secretary Benjamin Abalos earlier Sunday introduced Quiboloy’s arrest on his official Fb web page.

Quiboloy can be sought by US authorities for bulk money smuggling and a scheme that introduced church members to the USA utilizing fraudulently obtained visas.

They have been then compelled to solicit donations for a bogus charity, elevating funds that have been as an alternative used to finance church operations and the lavish existence of its leaders, based on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

It’s not identified if the USA has sought the extradition of Quiboloy, aged at the least 74 based on the FBI.

A US embassy spokesman referred media queries to the Philippine authorities.

‘Concerted effort’

“It is a concerted effort of everybody concerned,” Brigadier-Basic Nicolas Torre, the regional police chief who led the manhunt, instructed reporters at a information convention confirming the Quiboloy’s arrest.

“Let’s be proud. We did our job as we speak.”

Throughout his months-long flight from justice, Quiboloy demanded a written assure from Manila that he wouldn’t be topic to “extraordinary rendition” as a situation for his give up.

The time period refers to a US authorities observe of sending detained suspected members of terror organisations to a different nation for imprisonment and interrogation.

Some 2,000 police have been deployed on the KOJC headquarters in Davao on August 24 to serve an arrest warrant towards Quiboloy.

Duterte and his daughter — incumbent Vice President Sara Duterte who has had a falling out with President Ferdinand Marcos — had publicly criticised the police search contained in the sect’s 30-hectare (70-acre) property.

The vp condemned “the gross abuse of police energy within the takeover of the KOJC compound”, and apologised to sect members for having requested them to elect Marcos to the presidency, saying “you deserve higher”.

Minutes after Quiboloy’s arrest was introduced, SMNI, a Philippine tv station run by his sect, posted on its Fb web page photos of members embracing uniformed cops.

“After all of the pains and struggles, it’s evident that the KOJC missionaries have embraced Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s instructing to like not solely their neighbours however even their enemies,” it mentioned in a message accompanying the images.

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