Authorities in the Philippines detain a church leader on charges of engaging in sex trafficking. According to the government, authorities in the Philippines have taken into custody a well-known Filipino pastor who was close to former President Rodrigo Duterte and was accused of sex trafficking.
The Department of Interior’s secretary, Benhur Abalos, announced Apollo Quiboloy’s arrest on social media on Sunday. He did not say where the pastor was taken into custody.However, it was thought that the self-styled “owner of the universe” and “appointed son of God” was holed up in a bunker at a large compound owned by his church, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), in Duterte’s stronghold of Davao, in the southern city.
Nicolas Torre, the regional police director of Davao, verified Quiboloy’s arrest during a press conference. He claimed to have heard that Quiboloy turned himself in to the police.
The pastor was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by a court after the Philippine Department of Justice accused him of sexual abuse in June of this year. Along with him, five other church members were accused of qualified human trafficking and other child abuse offenses.
At least 3,000 police officers were sent by the government earlier on Sunday to the church compound, the site of an operation that has been ongoing for the past two weeks.
