Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said yesterday there will be “no special treatment” for Apollo Quiboloy, the fugitive preacher wanted for sexual abuse and human trafficking in both the Philippines and the United States.
On Sunday, Quiboloy, 74, the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus mega-church, surrendered to police with four other suspects at his church’s vast compound in the southern Philippines, bringing an end to a months-long manhunt.
Quiboloy went into hiding in April, after a court in Davao issued warrants for the arrest of Quiboloy and several associates for child abuse and sexual abuse. The Senate has also issued a separate arrest order against him, for failing to attend hearings of a committee, led by Senator Risa Hontiveros, investigating allegations of abuses within Quiboloy’s church.
Marcos assured the public that Quiboloy would receive “no special treatment,” despite the fugitive televangelist being presented to Philippine reporters with his face masked. As BenarNews noted, “criminals usually undergo the humiliation of having their faces exposed to the public.” The perception of differential treatment flared last week after the capture of another fugitive, Alice Guo, a former small-town mayor wanted in connection with illegal gaming and online scam operations.
The subject of another months-long manhunt, Guo was arrested last week in Indonesia and was swiftly extradited to the Philippines. However, the interior minister and chief of the Philippine National Police chose to be photographed with Guo before they boarded a Manila-bound charter flight in Jakarta on September 5. In the photo, Guo is seen flashing a wide smile and a peace sign, while the two smiling officials are smiling broadly. She was reportedly also not handcuffed, despite facing two arrest warrants.
The idea that Guo was being treated more like a celebrity than a criminal prompted a surge of outrage online, with critics claiming that the photo made a mockery of the Philippine justice system. “We want answers, NOT a photoshoot,” said Senator Risa Hontiveros, who is leading both the Senate investigation into Guo’s case and a similar probe into alleged abuses within the Quiboloy’s church. Guo also embarrassed the Marcos administration by managing to flee the country in July, while the subject of an ongoing investigation. Marcos promised that “heads will roll” after Guo was allowed to slip through the net.
Marcos said yesterday that the government would not treat Quiboloy differently due to his wealth and prominent public profile. “We will not violate any of his rights and will not ignore any of his requests, whatever they are,” he said. “We will demonstrate once again that our judicial system in the Philippines is active, vibrant, and working.”
Marcos also ruled out an immediate extradition of Quiboloy to the U.S., where he faces a raft of similar charges.
“For the moment, we are not looking at extradition. We are focusing on the cases filed in the Philippines,” he said, according to the Manila Standard. “It is now in the court’s hands; it’s no longer with the executive. Our role was to enforce the court’s order.”
In November 2021, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Quiboloy with having sex with women and underage girls. Quiboloy and two of his top administrators, as well as a church administrator in Hawaii, were also among nine people named in a superseding indictment unsealed the following week, which included charges of “conspiracy, sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, marriage fraud, money laundering, cash smuggling, and visa fraud.”
Quiboloy has denied all of the charges against him, claiming that they have been ginned up by disgruntled former members of his church in order to discredit him. Quiboloy’s lawyer, Israelito Torreon, said yesterday that his client’s innocence “will be affirmed by the court.”