Apollo Quiboloy extradition sought by US, envoy says

The United States has formally requested the extradition of Filipino pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who is wanted in the US on sex-trafficking charges, Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez said Thursday.

Romualdez told AFP that the formal request had been transmitted to the Philippine Department of Justice. He did not give further details.

Quiboloy, an ally of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested in the Philippines in 2024 on human-trafficking charges and has been held in a Manila jail since then. He pleaded not guilty shortly after his August 2024 arrest.

A US grand jury indicted Quiboloy in 2021 on charges including conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, sex trafficking of children, and bulk cash smuggling. The indictment alleges that girls and women aged 12 to 25 were recruited as personal assistants to prepare his meals, clean his residence, give him massages and have sex with him.

Philippine police said after his arrest that alleged victims were told they were having sex with the “Spirit of God” and were threatened not to tell anyone. Quiboloy's Kingdom of Jesus Christ church said at the time that members had “freedom of choice”.

Quiboloy was allowed to run for the Philippine Senate in the 2025 midterm elections while incarcerated and received 5,667,438 votes. In 2024, President Ferdinand Marcos said the government was not yet seeking to extradite him because it was focusing on cases filed in the Philippines.