The Philippines' Department of Justice has filed a United States extradition petition against detained religious leader Apollo Quiboloy before a Makati court, moving Washington's request to bring him to trial in the United States into the Philippine judicial process. The department confirmed the filing on Tuesday 10 November, a day after the petition was lodged.

The petition was filed on 9 November 2026 before the Makati Regional Trial Court and raffled to Branch 145, presided over by Judge Karen Matti Sy. It also names two co-respondents, Teresita Tolibas Dandan and Helen Panilag, both members of Quiboloy's Kingdom of Jesus Christ church. The Department of Justice said arrest warrants issued by a United States court against the three remain valid and enforceable.

What the United States alleges

Washington is seeking the three respondents' extradition to face prosecution for alleged international human trafficking, sex trafficking, conspiracy and bulk cash smuggling. A United States federal grand jury indicted Quiboloy in November 2021 over an alleged sex-trafficking operation, including conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and sex trafficking of children. Prosecutors have also alleged labour trafficking through fraudulent visas, sham marriage schemes and bulk cash smuggling, and Quiboloy was placed on the FBI's wanted list, with a federal arrest warrant issued on 10 November 2021.

The United States formally requested Quiboloy's extradition in August 2026. The Department of Justice said in October that preparations for the petition were in their final stages after new evidence, including documents from the US government, had to be verified because the incidents cited happened in the United States rather than the Philippines.

What happens next in court

The filing does not mean Quiboloy will be sent to the United States. Under the Philippines' Rules on Extradition Proceedings, the court is to issue a warrant of arrest against the persons sought, while the clerk of court issues summonses to be served personally, together with copies of the petition and its supporting documents. No hearing has yet been scheduled.

The Department of Justice stressed that an extradition proceeding will not decide whether the respondents are guilty or innocent. "An extradition proceeding is sui generis. It is not a criminal proceeding and it does not involve the determination of the guilt or innocence of an accused," the department said, adding that guilt or innocence would be judged in the courts of the state to which a person is extradited. His ongoing Philippine cases also raise questions about timing, although the rules allow temporary surrender to be considered even while local criminal proceedings remain pending.

Quiboloy's detention in the Philippines

Quiboloy, founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, was captured in September 2024 following a standoff at his compound in Davao City. He remains detained at Pasig City Jail over separate criminal cases filed in the Philippines, which will now run alongside the extradition case in Makati. The court's handling of the petition — and whether it orders his arrest and summons first — will determine how quickly Washington's long-running request moves from paper to proceedings.