Televangelist Apollo Quiboloy should not be making demands for a written guarantee of no extradition to the US in exchange for his surrender, ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro said.
Quiboloy, a self-proclaimed “Son of God” and ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte, was charged by the US Justice Department in 2021 with sex-trafficking of girls and women aged 12 to 25 to work as personal assistants or “pastorals” who were allegedly required to have sex with him.
A Davao City court last week ordered his arrest over charges of sexual assault, human trafficking, and labor violations, among other allegations of abuse.
Quiboloy also has a standing warrant of arrest from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for alleged frauds in the United States.
“Quiboloy is thumbing his nose at the Marcos administration and if it accedes to his demands, then it would be the laughing stock of the international community for having a justice system that can be bullied,” Castro said.
The Philippine National Police on Sunday reiterated its appeal to the fugitive televangelist to surrender.
Police Region XI spokesperson Maj. Catherine Dela Rey said the cases Quiboloy is facing—for alleged sexual abuse and child abuse—are all bailable, for P200,000 and P80,000, respectively.
Senator Ronald Dela Rosa warned Quiboloy his world will become much smaller when law enforcers launch a massive manhunt against him.
“They will really look for you because you have a standing warrant of arrest. Let the wheels of justice roll. I hope he will face the charges against him to put and end to this chaos,” Dela Rosa said.
Quiboloy on Saturday said he wanted a written guarantee from the government that “there will be no American interference and no extraordinary rendition” in the case if he surrenders to face charges in the Philippines.
“Unless you give me the guarantee I’m looking for, you won’t see me. Go ahead and hunt me down,” Quiboloy said in a voice clip posted on the YouTube channel of his church’s television network Sonshine Media.
“I’d rather die at the hands of the Filipinos, for my blood to spill here in my country, than to die at the hands of the American authorities who are overseas, in their country,” he said.
He alleged that President Marcos’s government had “conspired” with the FBI and CIA to “hand me over to the Americans.”
If his demands were met, Quiboloy said: “I will appear and deal with all those cases, no matter where you bring them, here in the Philippines.”