DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 07 Sept) — “The way I see it right now, no matter how you defend your position, you are at the losing end,” Senator Ronald dela Rosa told regional police chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre at the Senate committee hearing that lasted eight hours on Friday.
“You cannot justify your existence there in the compound” of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), dela Rosa said, adding that after 13 days, they have not arrested the fugitive Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, self-proclaimed “appointed son of God.” Friday was Day 14 of the police operations that started on August 24 with a deployment of at least 2,000 police personnel from at least four of six regions in Mindanao.
“And I think, I am suggesting to you, kung talagang after 13 days of occupation of that compound, still hindi ninyo na-arrest si Pastor Quiboloy, I think it’s high time for you to make a tactical retreat,” said dela Rosa.
Torre, however, replied, “we won’t stop until we arrest Quiboloy.”
Dela Rosa served as police chief of this city from 2012 to 2013 and chief of the Philippine National Police under the Duterte administration from 2016 to 2018 before his election as Senator in 2019. He spent most of his years as police officer in Davao City.
“As early as now, you can make your tactical retreat, however you term that, strategic retreat. You can do that. Pero kung sabihin mo sa akin, Gen. Torre that you will still continue to stay there, I don’t know how to explain. You will continue to stay in that area, armed with the warrant of arrest. After 13 days, hindi pa niyo nahuli yung hinahanap ninyo. I am running out of reasons. I am running out of justifications. I want to help you. I want to help you justify your actions. Dahil mga tao ko kayo dati. I am trying to help you. I am trying to justify your actions but I am running out of justifications. So yun, sabihin mo, tuloy-tuloy niyo pa. Well, I don’t know how to deal with this situation,” he said.
Ocular inspection and hearing
The hearing was preceded by an ocular inspection of the KOJC compound in the morning with Senators Robinhood Padilla and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go. The inspection and hearing are an offshoot of the privilege speech delivered by dela Rosa on August 27, titled “Listen to the heartbeat of the people.”
Dela Rosa chairs the “Subcommittee on the Privilege Speech on the PNP Operation in the KOJC” of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights. The Subcommittee probe are held jointly with the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs which dela Rosa also chairs and which conducted hearings on the alleged use of excessive force in the June 10 attempt of the police to arrest Quiboloy in the KOJC compound.
Quiboloy’s lead counsel, Israelito Torreon, had earlier told reporters they requested for the Senate hearing.
Dela Rosa’s sub-committee was supposed to have investigated, in aid of legislation, if indeed there was excessive use of force in the conduct of the operations. In his privilege speech, he asked four questions: Why deploy 2,000 police personnel to arrest Quiboloy and five co-accused? In the implementation of the warrant, must the police camp in inside and outside the KOJC compound? Is it right to conduct search operations inside the KOJC compound when the court has not issued a search warrant? And what can the KOJC members do to protect their rights, where can they seek help?
Dela Rosa said that as former PNP chief, he had not encountered an operation that would deploy 2,000 to implement a warrant of arrest.
As in his privilege speech, dela Rosa on Friday called President Bongbong Marcos to “please listen to these people. Mr. President. Please listen to whom? Sana ibalik mo ang buhay nito, mga tao na ito, to normal. Not only to the KOJC members, but also to your policemen,” who, he said, come from different regions and have spent several days on assignment here.
“Huwag ninyo isara ang utak ninyo para mahuli lang si (Don’t close your mind just to get) Pastor Quiboloy. You are willing to sacrifice everything. That’s only an appeal,” he said.
Dela Rosa did not repeat his call on Quiboloy on August 24, Day One of the police operations, after going inside the KOJC compound to talk to Torre and Quiboloy’s chief counsel, Torreon.
Speaking to reporters waiting outside the compound, dela Rosa urged Quiboloy to surrender and face the criminal charges against him, noting that he “cannot hide forever.”
“Kung ayaw nya, wala tayong magagawa. It’s his call. Kung pwede, mas maganda sana (If he doesn’t want to surrender, there’s nothing we can do. It’s his call. But it would be better if he does),” he said.
Dela Rosa said the courts had already issued arrest orders, which the police forces are implementing “May warrants na galing sa korte (There are already warrants from the court). You cannot hide (forever),” he said then.
“We won’t stop until we arrest Quiboloy”
Torre pointed to the difficulties they experienced in their search for Quiboloy. Addressing dela Rosa, he said: “We are still very far in completing the search for Apollo C. Quiboloy … The operation is hindered and controlled by the KOJC who uses its followers to intervene, interfere, harass, cause delays, and in general disrupt the search. We believe that this allows Quiboloy and others to relocate and hide, change their location as the search, even just in a single building, is being conducted, notwithstanding changing his location.”
But when dela Rosa asked Torre, “how long do you intend to stay there?” Torre replied, “Sir, same with the commitment earlier.”
“We won’t stop until we arrest Apollo Quiboloy, Sir. We believe he is in the KOJC compound and we’ll look for him. If only the KOJC members will cooperate with us, leave us alone what we are doing. We’re not hurting them. We’re not hurting them. They are the ones impeding us,” he said, adding, “we want to go into a building, why impede us? Stay away. It’s not you that we are targeting. We are looking for Apollo Quiboloy, Crescente Canada, Ingrid Canada, Silvia Cemanes and Jacqueline Roy. Those are the people that we are interested in. Let us look for them freely in these areas.”
Torre also said there “no point of debating considering that the court order still subsists and it will be a great dereliction of our duty if we will stop and we will not comply with the court order.”
“We have positive information that Mr. Quiboloy is in the compound and you have seen the challenges that we faced in the past 13 days … There’s only one person who can end this all. The son of God, claiming to be the son of God. Kasi nga naman ang son of God na kilala ko, na nabasa ko sa libro, nagpapako sa krus para sa kanyang pananampalataya” (The son of God that I know, that I read in the Book, had himself nailed on the cross for his faith), he said.
But Torre’s recommendation to clear the compound of Quiboloy’s supporters was shot down by dela Rosa and the KOJC. Torre said, “if we really want this to end, we want to clear all of Quiboloy’s supporters from the compound to allow full access and total search of the fugitive. From the start until yesterday, they (were) just obstructing justice,” he said.
Quiboloy’s chief counsel, Israelito Torreon, who made a presentation on behalf of the KOJC, reiterated that the warrant of arrest is not a license to transform the KOJC compound into a police garrison, that what is happening in the KOJC compound is a “rape of the 1987 Constitution.”
KOJC lawyer Dinah Tolentino-Fuentes said what is happening “constitutes a rape of the constitutional rights of other people. The right to religious freedom, right to education, right to life, liberty and property of third persons who are not part of these warrant of arrests,” referring to the KOJC members and residents in the compound and students of the Jose Maria College.
Quiboloy is facing three warrants of arrest – one from the Senate and two from the courts in Davao City and Pasig for alleged large-scale trafficking, sexual abuse among others.
He was cited for contempt on March 5 for snubbing for the third time the hearing of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality. A warrant for his arrest was signed by then Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on March 19.
The Senate committee was investigating, in aid of legislation, the “reported cases of large-scale human trafficking, rape, sexual abuse and violence, and child abuse of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ under its leader Apollo Quiboloy.”
In April, warrants of arrest were issued against Quiboloy and co-accused by a regional trial court in Davao City for child and sexual abuse, and by a court in Pasig for qualified human trafficking.
In the United States, Quiboloy and two other church administrators have been placed on a “wanted” list by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since early 2022 for “conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, and sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion; conspiracy; and bulk cash smuggling.” (Carolyn O. Arguillas and Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
