Newly released video has revealed the haunting conditions of an underground lair in the Philippines where women were allegedly held against their will and subjected to abuse and exploitation by a religious cult.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) shared footage of officers navigating a sprawling maze of rooms inside the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound on Saturday in search of wanted preacher Apollo Quiboloy.
Video cut between the squalid conditions of rows of beds, bare concrete walls and debris littering the floors, and the contrasting neon-lit corridors believed to have housed vulnerable women.
In footage obtained by the local Daily Tribune, police sweep a room ostensibly linked to ‘Amanda’, a key whistleblower who has helped expose alleged abuses within the church claiming as many as six million followers.
The underground network of rooms is understood to span three levels, two reserved for the ‘most attractive’ women, kept near FBI Most Wanted preacher Apollo Quiboloy as ‘offerings’ – and the third reportedly used to confine other women.
Hundreds of officers backed by riot squads were involved in the dramatic raid on Saturday as police close in on the preacher, a self-proclaimed ‘appointed son of God’, who is still believed to be hiding in the Davao compound.
Quiboloy (pictured) has denied the criminal allegations against him and his religious group
Haunting footage shows a room still full of personal belongings in the underground bunker
Police scoured some of the rooms downstairs but only found vacated beds and personal items
From above: the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound in Davao City, in the Philippines
Some rooms are filled with bunk beds, while others are designated as single rooms
The KOJC claims on its website that ‘evil people’ are ‘after Pastor Apollo Quiboro’ (pictured)
Video showed some of the dingy corridors inside the underground bunker as police swept through in the early hours of August 24.
Police appear to be in the basement of the compound, leading to a flight of stairs and decorated interior walls.
Debris including piles of wooden planks lay spread out on the ground as police conduct their search.
In another room, various furniture items can be seen left out, unpositioned.
A large, unlit room contains what appear to be rows and rows of wooden beds, raised slightly off the floor.
Clothes can still be seen left out to dry amid the apparent living quarters.
Pillows and water bottles show signs of life inside the enclosure.
Shoes still line cupboards outside the rooms, and personal belongings appear around another large, vacated room.
Video then cuts to what appears to be another floor, decorated with industrial metal counters and cupboards.
Corridors are illuminated with built-in overhead lights, revealing more rows of decorated private quarters.
Doorframes are lit up with blue LED lights, creating an eerie ambience through the hallways.
Police go on to reveal a mix of bunk beds and single rooms, some more decorated than others.
One single room has plants, posters and a dresser besides a neatly-made bed.
Others feature as many as six beds in a room, with more plain decoration.
Another room is shown to have at least two double beds, a sofa and a television mounted on the wall.
It is unclear for what purpose these rooms were used.
Amanda, the whistleblower, testified that she was one of many women held after being coerced into a sexual relationship with Quiboloy ‘at a young age’, presented as a ‘special privilege’ reserved for a chosen few, according to the Daily Tribune.
The early morning raid on August 24 received terrifying backlash from KOJC members, who were met by a force of approximately 2,000 police officers.
One person is understood to have suffered a heart attack and died in the clashes outside the compound in Davao city.
Police said the death was not related to their operations.
The PNP’s air unit claimed that members of the KOJC also targeted one of its helicopters with military-grade lasers and drones to distract and harass its pilots.
At least 18 members were detained for resisting police dispersal, and some were injured.
Police gather in one of the corridors, leading to more decorated rooms of bunkbeds
They stand in stark contrast to the gloomy unlit corridors of the basement hallways
Police believe Quiboloy was holding women captive across three floors in the compound
The church claims the pastor (centre) is being pursued because ‘the Devil… will try to eliminate a good man… who lays down his life for his fellowmen, who are oppressed by evil, at all costs’
Officers brought equipment that could detect people behind cement walls to the raid as they searched in vain for Quiboloy.
But by mid-afternoon, they found no sign of the preacher in the compound — some 30 hectares (75 acres) that includes a cathedral, a school, a living area, a hangar and a taxiway leading to Davao International Airport.
Quiboloy and his lawyer have denied the criminal allegations against him and his religious group, saying these were fabricated by critics and former members, who were removed from the religious group after committing irregularities.
Quiboloy’s followers, many filming the police raid with their cellphones, yelled at the police, questioning the legality of the raid and pronouncing the innocence of Quiboloy, who was a close supporter and spiritual adviser of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte had criticized previous attempts by large numbers of police to arrest Quiboloy as overkill.
Reports have also claimed media personnel have been harassed and intimidated since the raid.
Supporters have continued to gather in protest in recent days, blocked by anti-riot police.
Police Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, who led the raid, said officers wanted to serve warrants for the arrest of Quiboloy for various criminal cases, including child abuse and human trafficking.
He justified the large deployment, saying there were more than 40 buildings and structures to be searched in the religious compound, where large numbers of Quiboloy’s followers heckled and opposed the raid noisily.
‘We won’t leave here until we get him,’ Torre told reporters as sirens blared in the background.
‘We have no-bail warrants for Quiboloy and four others for very grave crimes, including human trafficking, child abuse and other cases.’
Anti-riot police block supporters of religious leader Apollo Quiboloy as they stage a protest rally outside the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound in Davao on August 26
Anti-riot police rest outside the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound in Davao city
Quiboloy claims to be the appointed son of God. In 2019, he claimed he stopped a major earthquake from hitting the southern Philippines.
In 2021, United States federal prosecutors announced the indictment of Quiboloy for allegedly having sex with women and underage girls who faced threats of abuse and ‘eternal damnation’ unless they catered to the self-proclaimed ‘son of God’.
Quiboloy and two of his top administrators were among nine people named in a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury and unsealed in November 2021.
The superseding indictment contained a raft of charges, including conspiracy, sex trafficking of children, sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, marriage fraud, money laundering, cash smuggling and visa fraud.
Quiboloy’s group said then that he was ready to face the charges in court, but he went into hiding after a Philippine court ordered his arrest and the arrest of several others for child and sexual abuse.
