DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 17 Oct) – The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has filed on Thursday complaints for sedition and inciting to sedition against Atty. Israelito R. Torreon and several members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC).
Brig. Gen. Nicolas D. Torre III, CIDG chief, appeared before the Department of Justice (DOJ) to personally file the criminal complaints against the respondents who were accused of disrupting the police operations to serve the arrest warrants on KOJC founder Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy and four of his five co-accused.
Aside from Torreon, respondents of the criminal complaints include co-counsel Atty. Marie Dinah Tolentino-Fuentes, Eleanor Cardona, Carlo Catiil, Kathleen Kaye Laurente, Trinidad S. Arafol, Joey Espina Sun, Esteban C. Lava, Jose A. Lim III, Jeffrey Celis aka “Ka Eric.”
Also included as respondents in the criminal complaints are Lorraine Badoy-Partosa, who is former spokesperson for National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and vlogger Lord Byron Cristobal aka “Banat By.”
In an interview with ABS-CBN, Torreon said that he was expecting the filing of complaints.
He added that the former regional chief of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-Davao had already declared that he would file sedition complaints against them even after the 16-day police operations, which Torreon described as a “siege.”
“I was really thinking as to what would be the ground, why he would file sedition complaints against us. Since he did already, I have no other recourse, except to wait for the receipt of the said complaint. And if the DOJ would find prima facie case and require us to submit a counter affidavit, we will interpose our defenses,” he said.
The police operations at the KOJC compound started on Aug. 24 and ended on Sept. 8 when Quiboloy and co-accused were arrested.
Quiboloy and his co-accused pleaded not guilty, in separate arraignments last Sept. 13, to child abuse and sexual abuse charges before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Quezon City, and qualified human trafficking charges before RTC in Pasig City.
His co-accused included Jackielyn W. Roy, Barangay Tamayong chairman Cresente Canada, Paulene Canada, Ingrid C. Canada, and Sylvia Cemañes. Paulene was arrested last July 11 at her residence in Emily Homes Subdivision in Barangay Cabantian here.
According to a press release issued by the DOJ, the police officers serving the arrest warrants were aggressively prevented by KOJC supporters “by barricading their compound, closing down national roads near the area, misleading and attacking police officers.”
It added that “some policemen were severely injured in the performance of their functions as evidenced in their affidavits submitted to the DOJ.”
The DOJ further said that KOJC members set tires ablaze, sprayed fire extinguishers at policemen, threw at them expired food, solid wastes, monobloc chairs and stones leading some officers to sustain injuries.
Under Article 139 of the Revised Penal Code, sedition may be committed when individuals rise publicly and tumultuously with the intent to prevent the national government or any public officer from freely exercising its or his function, through force, intimidation, or other unlawful means.
It may also be committed through infliction of any act of hate or revenge upon the person of any public officer or employee. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
