Rights groups ask Filipinos to reject ex-Pres Duterte and detained preacher in upcoming elections

MANILA, Philippines -- Human rights activists called on Filipino voters Wednesday to reject former President Rodrigo Duterte and detained televangelist Apollo Quiboloy in next year’s mid-term elections, citing the criminal allegations they’re facing.

Duterte registered Monday to run for mayor in the southern city of Davao. While in office, he oversaw anti-drugs crackdowns that left thousands of mostly poor suspect dead in killings, which the International Criminal Court has been investigating as a possible crime against humanity.

Quiboloy, the former president’s spiritual adviser and close political ally, has been detained on allegations of sexual abuse and human trafficking in the Philippines, and is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for similar charges in the United States. He filed candidacy papers for a seat in the 24-member Senate through a lawyer Tuesday.

Duterte and Quiboloy, who have backed each other for years, have separately denied any wrongdoing.

Under Philippine law, candidates facing criminal charges, including those in detention, can run for office unless they have been convicted of a crime by a Philippine court and exhausted all of their appeals.

Human Rights Watch said Duterte, now 79, can not evade justice in or out of government office.

"The thousands of victims of his brutal regime both across the Philippines and in Davao, where he had been mayor for a long time, will continue to demand accountability,” Caloy Conde, the Philippines-based Human Rights Watch campaigner, said and asked Filipino voters to reject him.

"He has too much blood on his hands,” Conde said.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who is leading a public investigation of the child sexual abuse and human trafficking allegations against Quiboloy, expressed shock over his decision to run for the Senate.

"For somebody who is facing so many cases, including human trafficking and child abuse, and even hid from law enforcers, you even have the gall of presenting yourself to the people as a candidate to be a lawmaker,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

"Let us not elect lawbreakers as lawmakers,” she said.

Cristina Palabay said her human rights group Karapatan and allied nongovernment organizations would hold public rallies to oppose Duterte, Quiboloy and their allies to prevent them from using public office as a legal shield.

"More and more of the Philippine electorate are aware of who and what they are,” Palabay said in a statement.

More than 6,000 people were killed during Duterte's drug crackdown, according to his administration. But human rights groups say the death toll is considerably higher, and excludes hundreds of killings of suspects in Davao, where Duterte served as mayor for years before his presidency.

Duterte has denied condoning extrajudicial killings, although he has publicly threatened suspects with death and has ordered police to shoot suspects who dangerously resist arrest.

Quiboloy, 74, a Filipino televangelist who calls himself the “anointed son of God” and once claimed to have stopped an earthquake, pleaded not guilty last month to charges of child abuse and human trafficking in two separate Philippine courts.

In his heyday, Quiboloy was one of the most influential religious leaders in the Philippines and was regarded a political kingmaker.

The founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ group, he faces similar charges in the United States, where he has been included in the FBI’s most-wanted list.

U.S. federal prosecutors announced charges against Quiboloy in 2021, accusing him coercing women and underage girls into sex using threats of abuse and “eternal damnation” unless they catered to his wishes. The allegations were made by former followers of Quiboloy. He has accused them of fabricating the allegations after they were dismissed from his organization.

The expanded U.S. indictment included charges of conspiracy, sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking by force, fraud, money laundering and visa fraud.

Asked to comment on Quiboloy’s bid for a Senate seat, the U.S. Embassy in Manila said it would not comment on domestic political issues.