DAVAO CITY — The Self-proclaimed “appointed Son of God” pastor Apollo Quiboloy, founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church, was indicted for sex trafficking in the United States.
This, after the federal prosecutors, indicted Quiboloy and 5 other new defendants to an existing indictment filed in 2020.
The indictment alleges that Quiboloy and 2 other defendants recruited females aged 12 to 25 as personal assistants, or “pastorals.”
The complainants, the US prosecutors said, were required to prepare Quiboloy’s meals, clean his residences, give him massages and have sex with him during what they called “night duty.”
The US DOJ said the nine defendants are charged with participating in a labor trafficking scheme that brought church members to the US, “via fraudulently obtained” visas, and forced the members to solicit donations for a bogus charity “that actually were used to finance church operations and the lavish lifestyles of its leaders.”
Three of the new defendants were arrested on November 18 by federal authorities and are expected to make their initial appearance at the US District Court in Los Angeles and Honolulu.
But Quiboloy through the legal counsel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ’s (KOJC), said people behind the case are “the same dissidents who miserably failed in their attempt to bring Pastor Quiboloy into the case in Hawaii.”
The complainants alleged that President Rodrigo Duterte’s spiritual adviser, was supposedly running a sex-trafficking operation that threatened victims as young as 12 with “eternal damnation” and physical abuse if they refused.
In a statement released Friday afternoon, the legal counsel of Quiboloy stated “We are confident and ready to face whatever is hurled against Pastor Quiboloy and the Kingdom leaders. We trust the process of justice and we certainly expect the truth to prevail, and the Kingdom ministry will continue to prosper,” the statement read.
“With the growing ministry and followers of the Kingdom comes also the growing opposition who are trying their best to destroy it and all the Kingdom leaders. While jealousy and evil will never stop, we strongly believe that good always triumphs over evil,” it added.
In march 2018, Quiboloy’s church manager in the US was arrested after failing to report more than $300,000 in cash that was in a suitcase aboard a private jet bound for the Philippines a month earlier.
After an investigation, it was revealed that the suitcase belonged to Quiboloy. He was not charged in the incident after the church manager pleaded guilty of making a false statement.
