PHILIPPINE Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez said the Philippine Embassy in the United States has yet to receive an official request for the extradition of controversial religious leader Apollo Quiboloy, who is declared wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for sex trafficking charges.
“We were informed that there was potentially a request for his extradition but so far there has been none coming our way,” Romualdez said at a meeting with journalist-participants of Friends, Allies, Partners Program on Thursday (Manila time).
Romualdez, however, said that extradition requests, even though they usually go through the Philippine Embassy, “can also go to the US Embassy [in the Philippines].”
“There are law enforcement representatives in the US Embassy that can make a request directly to our Department of Justice… It doesn’t necessarily have to come to us,” he said.
Quiboloy, leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), was indicted by a federal grand jury in the US District Court for the Central District of California for conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; conspiracy; and bulk cash smuggling.
