THE Department of Justice’s (DOJ) ongoing review on the dismissed rape and other charges filed against self-confessed ‘son of God’ Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, will not be an obstacle in case the United States government decides to seek his extradition.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra revealed this on Sunday. “The pendency of the appeal before the OSEC (Office of the Secretary) is not an obstacle to extradition because there is no indictment in a Philippine court as yet,” he said.

Guevarra admitted that an extradition is a long and tedious legal process, saying a petition must be first filed before regular courts.

“Extradition is not a simple process. the DOJ and the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) will first evaluate and determine if the US case is covered by our extradition treaty. If in the affirmative, the DOJ will file a petition for extradition in a Philippine court. If granted, and the judgment became final, the respondent may then be physically turned over to the requesting state for further legal proceedings, ” he pointed out.

On Friday, Guevarra said the rape case against Quiboloy, which was dismissed at the local prosecutor’s office last year, is now being reviewed by the DOJ.

Guevarra also clarified that apart from rape, Quiboloy, founder of a church called Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name (KOJC), is also facing a complaint for child abuse, trafficking in persons through forced labor, and trafficking in persons through sexual abuse arising from the same case.

“A complaint for rape, however, was filed against him last year in Davao City, but the same was dismissed. That dismissal is now on appeal with the DOJ,” Guevarra said.

Just recently, US prosecutors indicted Quiboloy along with US-based KOJC officers Teresita Tolibas Dandan and Helen Panilag for sex trafficking charges before the United States District Court in Los Angeles and Honolulu.

The information showed that girls as young as 12 have been allegedly coerced to have sex with Quiboloy under threat of bodily harm and “eternal damnation.”

The sex-trafficking charges were an added lawsuit as defendants no lower that nine have been charged in 2020 for their alleged intricacy in which church members were brought to the US with alleged fraudulently-obtained visas, and forced to solicit donations for a non-existent children’s charity.

The charge claimed that the donations were used to pay for “lavish lifestyles” of the church leaders.

In the latest indictiment, Quiboloy, Dandan, and Salinas have been accused of participating in a conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by fraud and coercion.

They allegedly recruited women aged 12 to 25 to work as “pastorals” (personal assistants) for Quiboloy. Three of the five victims were minors when the alleged sex trafficking began.