Lawyer and singer/composer Jimmy Bondoc, a senatorial candidate in the May elections under the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) slate, claimed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States has dropped its charges against Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) founder Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who is running in the same ticket backed by former president Rodrigo Duterte. This is false.
READ: FACT CHECK: Quiboloy’s US cases have NOT been junked, FACT CHECK: Apollo Quiboloy is NOT the KOJC leader with dismissed charges
STATEMENT
Interviewed by anchor Gretchen Ho on Morning Matters of One News PH on Feb. 17, Bondoc said:
“Ngayon, nakakulong siya (Now, he’s in jail). But the charges have been dropped by the FBI and there is one remaining case na mukhang ma-do-drop na rin (that will seemingly be dropped soon). And yet, based on the same evidence, he is being detained here.”
Source: One News PH, Morning Matters Livestream | February 17, 2025, watch from 56:00 to 56:18
Bondoc was responding to Ho’s question on what he meant by saying at the PDP-Laban proclamation rally last Feb. 13 in Pasig City that Quiboloy “represents the face of injustice.”
FACT
As of Feb. 26, Quiboloy remains on the most wanted list of the FBI for sex trafficking, fraud, coercion, bulk cash smuggling, among others. There has been no official announcement to the contrary from the U.S. federal authorities on the charges against the self-proclaimed “son of God.”
Quiboloy was indicted in the U.S. by a federal grand jury in November 2021 for conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud, coercion, and sex trafficking of minors. He also faces charges of bulk cash smuggling.
In December 2022, Quiboloy was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury for serious human rights abuse in the Philippines under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, blocking all his properties and interests within its jurisdiction.
Quiboloy was arrested in the Philippines in September 2024 for the charges of sex trafficking and sexual abuse of minors.
On Oct. 7, 2024, Marissa Duenas, KOJC human resource manager in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, entered into a plea agreement with U.S. prosecutors. She pleaded guilty to immigration fraud involving KOJC members, which may reduce her sentence after the California Central District Court dismisses the other charges against her.
The agreement pertains solely to Duenas. The trial against Quiboloy is tentatively scheduled on May 20, 2025.
