GENERAL SANTOS CITY — In a show of force, thousands of members of Kapa Community Ministry International Inc. gathered for a prayer rally here on Thursday, urging President Duterte to reconsider his order shutting down their group’s operations.
The President issued the order to shut down Kapa and other groups on Saturday for alleged involvement in investment scams.
In a phone patch, Kapa founder Joel Apolinario said Mr. Duterte wanted to meet him in Davao City on Thursday to discuss the closure of Kapa offices early this week, drawing applause from followers who assembled at Acharon Sports Complex around 11:30 a.m.
“We have done no violation. Everything we’re doing complies with the Constitution,” said the Bible-quoting Apolinario. “If God is with us, who can be against us?”
He called on the crowd to continue making an appeal for Mr. Duterte to withdraw the order.
Organizers claimed that around 500,000 turned up for the rally, but police placed the number at 100,000. Kapa claims to have five million members.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Kapa was running a Ponzi scheme in which existing investors are paid with funds from new investors.
The corporate watchdog issued the firm a permanent cease-and-desist order in March. On June 4, the Court of Appeals froze Kapa’s bank accounts.
Criminal charges against Kapa officers are to follow.
Complying with Duterte’s order, National Bureau of Investigation agents raided Kapa offices across the country on June 10.
Don’t join Kapa
On Thursday, the President advised the public against patronizing Kapa because the group was engaged in a continuing crime.
He pointed out that large-scale estafa was nonbailable, warning those involved in the investment scam that they could not escape from the law.
“I told the police and the NBI to arrest them (Kapa officials),” he said during the distribution of land ownership awards to agrarian reform beneficiaries at the Lagao gymnasium in General Santos City.
The President told the beneficiaries not to join Kapa. “That’s deception,” he said. “If it’s too good to be true, do not join.”
In a separate venue, Apolinario told the huge gathering of Kapa members that Duterte might come to the event. The Kapa founder arrived on a helicopter from Davao City.
Criminal complaint
The NBI is set to file a criminal complaint against Kapa officers for operating without a license for investment products.
The religious group has no license to operate from the SEC, said Cesar Bacani, head of the NBI’s National Capital Region office.
In a press conference in Manila, Bacani said the group had been soliciting “donations” from its members while promising a 30-percent return.
“Based on a SEC computation, a 30-percent return was impossible. Eventually, the system, as with other investment scams, would fall apart,” he said.
For now, the NBI would focus on the SEC violation.
It said it couldn’t file charges for swindling or large-scale estafa against the Kapa officers because investigators had yet to find a complainant.
Besides, members were still receiving money from the ministry, Bacani said.
Continuing crime
Malacañang said on Thursday that if Kapa wanted to continue its operations, it should file a case in court.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said it was up to the President if he would reconsider his order on the closure of Kapa offices.
At the rally, several Kapa members denied that the group was involved in an investment scam.
“We want President Duterte to know that as far as we are concerned, Kapa is not a scam,” said Ophelia Villaber, 49, a General Santos City resident.
Villaber said she and her husband, a fisherman, invested P30,000 and had been getting a monthly yield of P9,000, which Kapa called “love gift.”
“The payout helped us settle our electric and water bills” and the medical expenses of her asthmatic husband, she said.
Leonardo Babasin, a banana farmer and a father of two young children, came all the way from Kidapawan City, about three hours away by car, to support the Kapa rally in this city.
“When we heard that President Duterte ordered the closure of Kapa, we cried. Kapa has helped many poor families meet their basic needs,” he said.
On Wednesday, he said 20 vans filled with Kapa members traveled from Kidapawan on a convoy so they could join the prayer rally.
The city government had granted a permit allowing Kapa to hold a rally until Friday.
Latest car models
The rally turned out to be not only a showcase of the strength of the religious corporation’s members but also a parade of the latest car models.
Besides motorcycles, tricycles, cargo trucks and commuter vans that ferried participants to the venue, top-of-the-line sport utility vehicles lined the roadsides, snarling traffic.
Enterprising homeowners made a killing by charging P100 per vehicle in what used to be free parking spaces around the sports complex.
Organizers said participants came from different parts of Mindanao, including Bislig in Surigao del Sur province, where the group started operations three years ago. —WITH REPORTS FROM AIE BALAGTAS SEE AND JULIE M. AURELIO