DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 03 September) — Police personnel barred the lead legal counsel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), Atty. Israelito Torreon, from entering Tuesday the basement of Jose Maria College (JMC) and the KOJC cathedral, where he claimed a tunnel has been excavated to find the alleged bunker where fugitive Pastor Apollo Quiboloy could be hiding.
Covered by various media outfits, Torreon and some KOJC members at 2:50 p.m. tried to go past three entrances towards the JMC basement and two at the cathedral, but anti-riot policemen blocked them from going through.
The search to arrest Quiboloy and his co-accused inside the 30-hectare KOJC compound is now on Day 11.
Quiboloy et al. were hounded arrest by warrants from two Philippine courts and the Senate for alleged large-scale human trafficking and sexual abuse, among other charges.
Armed policemen were seen inside the compound as Torreon asked to talk to the leaders of the anti-riot police forces, who did not face him. Earlier, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the policemen deployed to the KOJC compound were unarmed.
Before Torreon tried to enter the JMC basement and the cathedral, he called on police forces, during a press conference, to relocate from the church to other parts of the compound because their presence was affecting the group’s religious gatherings.
He suspected that “unreasonable activities” are being done inside the cathedral since the police did not allow KOJC member to use or enter it.
Torreon challenged Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, Police Regional Office – 11 (PRO-11) director, to be at the compound in the afternoon so they can both go inside the facilities to check on what is really happening.
“Come here around 4 p.m. Let’s go inside, and if you want, allow our members to use the KOJC cathedral. Ask your officers to leave properly because we need to use it,” the lawyer said.
Torre, who is leading the arresting team composed of some 2,000 police personnel from Regions 10, 11, 12 and 13, was a no show.
In a Facebook post at 9:42 a.m. on Tuesday, Torreon urged General Rommel Marbil, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), to allow KOJC members to enter the cathedral so they can hold religious activities, as they have not done so due to the police barricades set up since August 24, Day 1 of the police operations to arrest Quiboloy for the second time at the KOJC compound.
He also questioned the alleged digging of “an eight-meter deep hole” at the JMC basement to find the supposed bunker where Quiboloy could be hiding..
At the press conference, Torreon said it is high time for both him and Torre to determine if the tunnel really exists.
The lawyer posted a photo of the alleged tunnel being dug at the JMC basement by the police, which he said came from “second-hand sources.”
“Let’s go to the [Jose Maria College] basement, and let’s bring the media so that everything can be cleared up once and for all. Because if the structural stability is affected, then we won’t have a school anymore,” Torreon said in Cebuano during the press conference.
After several times of attempting to enter the JMC basement and cathedral, Torreon left “with a strong suspicion that the police could be digging a tunnel.”
“This indicates that perhaps they are doing something fishy inside the compound,” he told reporters in an ambush interview.
In an earlier press conference held at Camp Sgt. Quintin M. Merecido Tuesday morning, Torre did not confirm nor deny Torreon’s allegations about the “tunnel.”
However, the police official challenged the KOJC camp to provide proof that they indeed dug an eight-meter tunnel.
He also urged the KOJC to present the person who took the picture of the alleged digging inside the group’s compound that has gone viral on social media. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
