FBI Most Wanted Today: Quiboloy Co-Accused Teresita Dandan Still at Large

Sixty-four years old, and nearly five years on the run. Teresita Dandan has, according to the Global Filipino Magazine account, remained at large for nearly five years after a US court issued a warrant for her arrest, and that long fugitive hunt is the human centre of a story that has returned to the news this week.

The Anti-Trafficking Bureau, a nonprofit organisation, reminded the public in a Facebook post that Teresita Dandan, 64, an administrator of the Apollo Quiboloy-led Kingdom of Jesus Christ, was still wanted by the FBI, the Manila Times reported. Dandan is described as a senior official of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, known as KOJC, the Davao City-based church founded by Apollo Quiboloy, and as the church's international administrator, the Global Filipino Magazine reported.

Every trafficking detail in this article is a prosecution allegation, and Dandan's guilt must never be stated as fact. She is charged, not convicted, and she remains a fugitive, and the distinction between a charge and a conviction is the most important line in the whole story.

Teresita Dandan FBI Wanted: Federal Trafficking Charges

Dandan is wanted on federal charges including conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, and sex trafficking of children, according to the Anti-Trafficking Bureau post, as reported by the Manila Times and the Global Filipino Magazine. The wording of the charges is set out seperately below in the bureau's own terms, because the exact charges matter more than any summary of them.

Wanted on federal charges including conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, and sex trafficking of children.

That wording comes from the Anti-Trafficking Bureau post, as reported by the Manila Times, and it describes the charges Dandan faces rather than a finding against her. Prosecutors allege, in the account reported by the Manila Times, that girls and young women ages 12 to 25 were recruited as personal assistants and coerced, while church members were brought to the US on fraudulent visas and forced to solicit for a bogus charity.

Those details are the prosecution's allegation, and they are attributed as such throughout this article. The ages, the recruitment, the coercion and the fraudulent visas are all claims made by prosecutors in the case, not findings by a court against Dandan, and readers should hold that attribution in mind through every sentence that repeats them.

Quiboloy Case: Warrants, Co-Defendants and Extradition

US courts issued arrest warrants for Dandan and fellow church official Helen Panilag in November 2021, and wanted posters for Quiboloy, Dandan and Panilag were published on 31 January 2022, the Global Filipino Magazine reported. The case is pending before the US District Court for the Central District of California, and Quiboloy has eight co-defendants in the indictment, Dandan and Panilag among them, according to the same report.

Quiboloy remains imprisoned in Pasig City Jail, awaiting extradition to the US, the Manila Times reported. His imprisonment and the extradition wait give the Dandan story its present urgency, because the man at the centre of the church is in custody while one of his senior officials is still, on the bureau's account, at large.

The Anti-Trafficking Bureau advised Americans to call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or visit tips.fbi.gov, the Manila Times reported. That advice is the practical point of the bureau's renewed post, because a fugitive hunt that has lasted nearly five years depends on members of the public recognising a name and a face and knowing where to report what they know.

Readers following other cases where prosecutors have brought serious charges against church figures can read the report of Pastor Cristian Popescu facing fraud charges, with prosecutors saying God chose you to invest, and the Archdiocese of New York settlement approved by 1,300 abuse survivors. Those stories are different cases with different facts, and they are linked here only as other reports in which courts and prosecutors have dealt with claims against religious institutions.

Teresita Dandan Still at Large: What Happens Next

The Inquirer item on this story is undated in the search result, and this article therefore relies on the two dated 27 October sources for the fresh hook. That dating matters, because the renewal of attention is a 27 October development, while the warrants date to 2021.

What happens next depends on whether the renewed attention produces a sighting, a tip or an arrest, or whether Dandan remains at large for a sixth year. The bureau's post is a reminder, not a new charge, and reminders only work if they reach someone who knows something the authorities do not yet know.

For the alleged victims named in the prosecution's account, the wait is the story within the story, because a case pending in California cannot move forward against a defendant who is not in custody, and the passage of nearly five years since the warrants were issued is itself a measure of how long that wait has been. Readers following other reports of Christians facing courts and prosecutors can also read the report of Egypt Christians arrested over a TikTok video, with 6 Coptic men jailed over a comedy clip, a different case with different facts.

Whether the next report on Teresita Dandan is an arrest, an extradition or another year at large is the open question this renewed appeal leaves behind, and it is a question that will be answered not by statements but by a knock on a door somewhere. Until then, Dandan remains charged and not convicted, Quiboloy remains jailed and awaiting extradition, and the FBI's wanted posters from January 2022 remain, on the bureau's account, still live and still waiting for the tip that closes a hunt now nearly five years old.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.