Quiboloy claims US plans to kill him
By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter
A FILIPINO celebrity evangelist wanted by the United States government for sex trafficking claimed on Wednesday that instead of seeking his extradition, the US has supposedly hatched a plan to assassinate him in the Philippines.
“We have learned at this moment from reliable sources that… they allegedly no longer want an extradition,” Apollo C. Quiboloy, leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ religious group, said in an audio recording posted on Facebook.
“What they plan to do, according to the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Embassy, and the State Department… is ‘rendition,’ meaning they can enter my compound at any time and kidnap me.”
He added that US forces are likely to assassinate him once they enter his compound, noting that his 11 compounds in the country are under constant surveillance by drones.
Sought for comment, the US Embassy did not directly address his claims, but expressed confidence that “Quiboloy will face justice for his heinous crimes.”
“For more than a decade, Apollo Quiboloy engaged in serious human rights abuses, including a pattern of systemic and pervasive rape of girls as young as 11 years old, and he is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted List,” US Embassy in Manila spokesperson Kanishka Gangopadhyay told reporters in Viber message.
Under US law, “rendition” is the surrender of a state of a fugitive in another state that has charged the person with a crime.
“They (Americans) will do whatever they want to do to me in my own country,” Mr. Quiboloy said.
Facing two subpoenas from both the Senate and the House of Representatives, he also said he would face allegations in court, not before Congress.
Congress is in the middle of investigating alleged cases of abuse against members of the religious group.
Mr. Quiboloy, who was former president Rodrigo R. Duterte’s spiritual adviser, had been indicted in a California district court on Nov. 10, 2021, and a federal warrant had been issued for his arrest.
In a statement on Wednesday, Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros-Baraquel, who had issued a subpoena against the religious leader for not attending Senate hearings, said she would cite him in contempt and have him arrested if he continues to snub the Senate probe.
She had urged the Department of Justice (DoJ) to issue an immigration lookout bulletin order against Mr. Quiboloy to stop him from leaving the country amid the probe.