GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 30 August) – A week after storming the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound in Davao City where they suspect fugitive self-styled son of God Pastor Apollo Quiboloy and his co-accused have been hiding, battle-clad policemen still roam the place with their shields and batons, moving in sequences and formations like gladiators and Spartans of old.
This is perhaps why Davao region police director Brigadier General Nicolas Torre III declared that “Maximus and the Spartan 300” were with them when they overpowered thousands of supporters of Quiboloy who blocked a portion of the national highway in Buhangin, Davao City.
The compound, a 30-hectare property of the KOJC is located in Buhangin, the same barangay where Camp Quintin Merecido, headquarters of the Police Regional Office 11 can be found.
The “Maximus” that Torre referred to is the country’s top cop, General Rommel Francisco Marbil, whom the Davao region police chief said came up with a brilliant strategy in dispersing around 3,000 KOJC members who occupied a portion of the highway.
Torre credited Marbil for the successful crowd dispersal, allowing them to arrest 29 KOJC members, including the operators and drivers of the KOJC-owned trucks and cranes that were used to block the road.
He said they confiscated two fire engines, two wing-van trucks and two cranes, “which we will use as evidence in filing obstruction of justice against those that were arrested.”
“Magaling na strategist, parang Spartan 300,” quipped Torre, who earlier also described their efforts inside the KOJC compound as “like a children’s game of hide and seek in a 30-hectare property.”
During a press conference livestreamed on Thursday, KOJC lawyers slammed the continued presence of the police in the property.
In condemning the ongoing police operations, the KOJC lawyers said it is a “continuing and contemptuous” violation of the temporary protection order issued by a Davao court on Tuesday, August 27.
KOJC lawyers Israelito Torreon and Dinah Tolentino-Fuentes accused police authorities of violating the rights of people uninvolved in the cases against their leader and five of his followers.
The suspects went into hiding after courts ordered their arrest for various offenses like child abuse and human trafficking.
“We admit there is a warrant for arrest. But that demand to surrender is not a license to trample on the rights of other individuals, their lives, liberties, and properties,” pointed out Torreon.
Quiboloy and five other individuals – Jackielyn Roy, Cresente Canada, Paulene Canada, Ingrid Canada, and Sylvia Cemañes – are being charged with human trafficking and other crimes in Davao City and Pasig City. Paulene was arrested last July 11 at her residence in Emily Homes Subdivision in Barangay Cabantian in Davao City.
‘Please leave’
Torreon said the police operations at the sprawling property have disrupted classes at the Quiboloy group’s school, Jose Maria College, as well as religious services and activities at the KOJC Cathedral.
He added that freedom of movement has been restricted for six days. “This is too much. Please, that’s enough. Please leave,” he said.
Fuentes said she and three other lawyers were initially prevented from entering the property.
“It’s been six days, 3,000 troops. The fact that some of our members are sleeping on the streets – is that still reasonable? If you’re looking for one man and using 3,000 troops, is that still reasonable?” she said in a press briefing.
On Wednesday, August 28, Judge Mario Duaves of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 15 in Davao released a supplemental and clarificatory order that the protection order issued a day earlier did not cancel or nullify the processes related to warrants of arrest. “Both serve different purposes and are not contradictory,” read part of the supplemental order.
In a press briefing live-streamed online on Thursday, August 29, Brigadier General Roderick Augustus Alba, head spokesperson of a special task group tasked to go after Quiboloy and the four other suspects, said the “PNP will remain in the KOJC compound for as long as necessary.”
Alba called for calm as he assured Quiboloy’s followers and communities surrounding the sprawling KOJC property in Davao that “our business is to protect and serve.”
Maximus and Spartan 300
Torre shared a story during an online interview over the YouTube channel of finance undersecretary and now University of the Philippines professor Cielo Magno on Tuesday.
Torre said there was an overwhelming number of KOJC members as against a handful of crowd control cops and there is need to remove the crowd that has already blocked for almost 24 hours a portion of the highway, preventing traffic flow.
“Under the heat of a noontime sun, the outnumbered policemen moved methodically and ably dispersed the protesting crowd,” narrated the general who attended a seminary before joining class 1993 of the Philippine National Police Academy.
“Si Maximus ay andito kasi sa side ng PNP sa Davao (Maximus is here with the PNP in Davao),” Torre, alluding to the tragic lead character in the movie “Gladiator,” said chuckling during the online interview by Magno. (Rommel Rebollido/MindaNews)
