Philippines Arrests Megachurch Leader Apollo Quiboloy, a Duterte Ally Accused of Trafficking

An evangelical preacher wanted by the U.S. FBI and who has close ties to former leader Rodrigo Duterte and his family, has been arrested as the clan’s rift with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. deepens.

Apollo Quiboloy, founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church, has been arrested in Davao City after weeks of police operation, Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said on Sunday in a Facebook post, without providing other details. Authorities have sought to arrest Quiboloy for months.

The 74-year-old pastor who also operates a broadcast company, the Sonshine Media Network Inc., has been in the FBI’s most wanted list for alleged sexual abuse, human trafficking and bulk cash smuggling. Quiboloy had long denied the allegations, saying it was part of the struggles of being the “appointed Son of God”—a phrase he uses to describe himself. He also faces cases in local courts.

Quiboloy’s arrest comes after two weeks of standoff and intermittent clashes between the police and the pastor’s followers as authorities searched the massive church compound in the southern city of Davao. The latest development risks inflaming the worsening conflict between the country’s most powerful families whose alliance in the 2022 election delivered landslide victories to Marcos and to Vice President Sara Duterte.

The pastor and Duterte’s adviser is expected to arrive in the capital late Sunday following his arrest, ABS-CBN News said on X. In April, two local courts issued arrest warrants against the preacher and several others for alleged sexual abuse, child abuse and human trafficking. The month before that, the Senate also issued a warrant for Quiboloy after he didn’t appear in a probe about alleged abuses in his church.

Vice President Duterte, daughter of the former leader, had criticized the government for “grave abuse of police power” in its operations to arrest the pastor, citing the deployment of about 2,000 personnel. Marcos had defended the police and said the government would certainly need a lot of people to search a 30-hectare compound.

Quiboloy’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio was cited by ABS-CBN News on X as saying that the pastor surrendered voluntarily to the Armed Forces and was not arrested by the police.

“There was no doubt that he was here. The search took a long time because the place is really massive,” Brigadier General Nicolas Torre, Davao region’s police director, said in an interview with DZBB radio. “I’m also thankful to Pastor Apollo Quiboloy for the realization that this is the right thing to do - which is to face the law.”

In searching Quiboloy’s compound, the police reportedly said they found secret tunnels and underground rooms. The self-styled preacher endorsed the election bid of Marcos and Duterte’s daughter in 2022.