There may be no need to extradite President Duterte’s spiritual adviser, Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) founder Apollo C. Quiboloy, if he turns himself to the jurisdiction of the United States authorities which charged him with “sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion.”
“All talks about possible extradition will be mooted if the person sought to be extradited opted to voluntarily surrender to the jurisdiction of the requesting state and defend himself/herself with the assistance of counsel in the appropriate legal proceedings in the requesting state,” Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said on Monday afternoon, Nov. 22.
But Guevarra was quick to say that he has not received any surrender feelers from Quiboloy.
Guevarra had earlier said that if the US government requests the extradition of Quiboloy, the Department of Justice and the Department of Foreign Affairs will have to study if the charges filed against him in the US are covered by the RP-US extradition treaty.
If the charges against Quiboloy are covered by the treaty, “the DOJ will file a petition for extradition before a Philippine court.”
“If granted, and the judgment (of the Philippine court) became final, the respondent (Quiboloy) may then be physically turned over to the requesting state for further legal proceedings,” he said.
Aside from Quiboloy’s indictment in the US, a complaint was also filed against him last year before the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office for rape, child abuse, ill treatment under the Revised Penal Code (RPC), trafficking in persons through forced labor, and trafficking in persons through sexual abuse.
The charges had been dismissed by the prosecutor’s office but the complainant had appealed before the Office of the Secretary of Justice (OSEC).
Guevarra said “the pendency of the appeal before the OSEC is not an obstacle to extradition because there is no indictment in a Philippine court as yet.”
The US DOJ said Quiboloy and two co-defendants--Teresita Tolibas Dandan and Felina Salinas--have been “charged in count one of the superseding indictment, which alleges the sex trafficking conspiracy” and each “charged in at least three of five substantive counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion.”
Among other things, the US DOJ said: “These three defendants allegedly recruited females ranging from approximately 12 to 25 years of age to work as personal assistants, or ‘pastorals,’ for Quiboloy. The indictment states that the victims prepared Quiboloy’s meals, cleaned his residences, gave him massages and were required to have sex with Quiboloy in what the pastorals called ‘night duty.’ The indictment specifically mentions five female victims, three of whom were minors when the alleged sex trafficking began.”