MANILA, Philippines – As if in pursuit of a world record that nobody wanted to set in the first place, the Philippine government, over the course of 5 days, managed to nab two of its most wanted: a dismissed town mayor with alleged ties to a criminal enterprise, and an infamous doomsday preacher wanted for child abuse, sexual abuse, and human trafficking charges.
Dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo, once accused of being a Chinese spy, was arrested in Indonesia on September 5. She was swiftly turned over to the Philippines by evening of the same day, with no less than Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos and Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Rommel Marbil as her escorts.
Days later, on September 8, doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy, former president Rodrigo Duterte’s fierce ally, surrendered to Philippine authorities after months of hiding from the Senate and courts, and following a standoff between police and his supporters in Davao City.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself gave his go-signal on the two arrests-cum-extraction missions. For the Guo case, allowing Abalos and Marbil to fly to Jakarta themselves. In Quiboloy’s case, it was Marcos who gave officials the go-signal to agree to the preacher’s only reasonable request: that the military be present in his surrender because he supposedly did not trust the police. (That he eventually ended up in PNP custody is another plot twist altogether.)
Both cases involve a foreign country — which the Philippines wants to keep close ties with.
Let’s dive into both cases.
Swap for Guo
It had been a mystery why Indonesia — despite the absence of a criminal case against her, at least not until crunch time (a Tarlac court eventually issued a buzzer-beating warrant) — was willing to pour resources into tracking Guo. Before that, Indonesian officials caught and then transferred custody of Cassandra Ong, a Filipino with ties to another sketchy gambling business in Pampanga whose supposed boyfriend is Alice Guo’s brother.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla would first let it slip, initially confirming to reporters in Manila that Indonesia was keen on a prisoner exchange — Alice Guo for Gregor Johann Haas, a suspected Australian drug cartel syndicate member who was arrested in Cebu last May.
Indonesia’s envoy to Manila Agus Widjojo, in a quick chat with media on the sidelines of an event in Makati the same night Guo was in transit, neither confirmed nor denied such negotiations but said they were taking place in Jakarta, as jumpstarted by Abalos and Marbil.
Talk in town is that Manila is okay with the arrangement even as there’s another possible bump on the road — Australia is expected to oppose such a transfer. By default, Canberra is iffy about exposing its nationals to capital punishment. Monash University’s Leavides Domingo-Cabarrubias wrote in 2022 about “[Australia’s] clear position to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances for all people.”
Its federal government spelled this out in a 2018 “whole-of-government strategy… to pursuing global abolition of the death penalty.”
At the end of the day, will Canberra be willing to use diplomatic and political points on the case? Haas was arrested in Cebu on the basis of an Interpol alert, stemming from the case in Indonesia (where drug convictions can be punishable by death). Australia, too, is keen on developing even closer ties with Southeast Asia, especially key countries like the Philippines and Indonesia.
Anyone but Torre, anything but US extradition
Apollo Quiboloy has been living the life for years — even after the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation placed him in their most wanted list for allegations of “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.”
From November 2021 until recently, Quiboloy was able to freely move around the country. After all, his close friend Rodrigo Duterte was in power until June 2022. Quiboloy also endorsed the eventual winners of the 2022 polls: Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of the former president.
Then in the first quarter of 2024, as if justice officials and the judiciary had be awoken from a deep slumber, cases were filed and warrants were issued against the preacher in the Philippines. While his movements were limited, Quiboloy refused to surrender or be captured — that is, until the PNP finally cracked down on trying to implement the warrant.
What the alleged sex trafficker seemed to be scared of the most was the possibility of extradition to the United States, over the charges he faces there.
The Philippines government, including Marcos himself, has said that the US has not filed an extradition request for Quiboloy. Rappler sources privy to conversations related to the controversial preacher said while no request has been filed, there have been extensive discussions — albeit informal — between the two countries related to a possible extradition.
But why haven’t they filed it, if they’re already ready? Domestic politics is a critical factor in both the Guo and Quiboloy cases.
The Duterte connection
The Guo case exposes the extent of illegal activities in the Philippines under the guise of the Chinese-run Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, which Rodrigo Duterte had supported and promoted.
I’d argue it’s part of a larger accounting and reckoning — of what the Philippines had compromised in the older Duterte’s quest of closer ties with Beijing.
While Marcos and Sara Duterte are past pretending their precarious 2022-borne alliance still stands, the Philippine President himself has seemingly been cautious about attacking the younger Duterte — even if they have not spoken since she left his Cabinet.
Her allies in Congress have been a little less subtle. Many of Sara Duterte’s former buddies in the legislature, who once treated her with kid gloves, are no longer shy in grilling the former Davao mayor over her use of public funds, among other things.
Marcos has been rather conservative, too, about hitting back at old man Duterte, even if the latter accused him of being a drug addict (only the First Lady was not publicly cool about it).
While Rappler’s sources who have skin in the game refuse to speculate over why our allies in Washington are holding back from filing an extradition request, one could consider: it would be in the US’s interests to give President Marcos and his administration as much space as possible in handling cases filed against one of Rodrigo Duterte’s most trusted men.
It would not be good optics for Manila to be seen as acting against Quiboloy on America’s behest. Marcos has already made clear that Quiboloy would first face charges in the Philippines, and then serve his time if he’s convicted, before extradition is even on the table. That’s surely a win for Quiboloy.
Yet even as one of Quiboloy’s asks were accorded to him, another was quickly taken away.
The pastor’s explicit request was to be in the presence of the military. Supporters in Davao City had also apparently expected Quiboloy to be placed under military custody, never mind that law enforcement is a civilian matter that is handled by the PNP. The defense department has officially thumbed down moves to place Quiboloy in military custody.
The saga of the self-proclaimed son of God is not yet over. – Rappler.com