US Marshals Likely to Fly Out Quiboloy if Extradited, Ambassador Says

MANILA, Philippines — The United States wants Apollo Quiboloy in American custody as soon as possible, the Philippine ambassador in Washington said, amid growing international pressure over trafficking charges against the detained preacher. If the transfer is cleared, US Marshals or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents would likely come for Quiboloy themselves and fly him out aboard a US aircraft, Romualdez said in two separate broadcast interviews on Friday, August 7. "If there is a request like that, they want it as soon as possible because of pending cases. And this is not a normal case. This is a high-profile, top priority case, because it involves human and child trafficking and sex trafficking," Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said in an interview with government-run broadcaster IBC-13. The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday that it has forwarded the American extradition request to the Department of Justice. Quiboloy, founder of the Davao-based Kingdom of Jesus Christ sect, is facing multiple indictments in the US, including sex trafficking, conspiracy and immigration fraud. Romualdez, speaking in a separate interview on DZBB on Friday, explained that Quiboloy's case is considered high-profile because it involves an international crime. "When it comes to human trafficking and then sex trafficking. Yes. That is a major international crime," Romualdez said. "So most likely US Marshals, they have their own plane and they will pick up Pastor Quiboloy and take him to the place where the crime supposedly was committed, in this case maybe Los Angeles," he added. Any transfer will have to be approved first by a Philippine court, who must weigh the American request against the criminal cases Quiboloy faces at home, Romualdez said. "That court needs to decide if the US request will take precedence over the cases here. And it also depends on our Department of Justice," the ambassador said. Romualdez believes the Philippines would have reasons of its own to cooperate, given how many Filipinos end up trafficked or smuggled abroad. "Many Filipinos have been victims of human trafficking," he said. "So we have to cooperate in as much as we can because we want this type of crime to stop." US prosecutors allege that Quiboloy and his aides groomed and coerced female followers — some of them minors — into sexual acts. Quiboloy and his followers are also accused of bringing their group's members to the US using fraudulently obtained visas. Police arrested Quiboloy in Davao City in September 2024 after a lengthy manhunt in his group's compound. He is currently detained at the Pasig City Jail over a non-bailable qualified human trafficking charge. He is also facing a separate child abuse case. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in 2024 said at the time the government was not looking at extraditing Quiboloy and would "focus on [his] cases filed in the Philippines."