Kingdom of Jesus Christ Founder Apollo Quiboloy (INQUIRER file photo)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Around 2,000 members of the Philippine National Police raided the compound of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) in Buhangin District, Davao City.
This operation is part of another attempt by the police to serve the arrest warrant against televangelist Apollo Quiboloy and other sect members.
The accused are facing charges of child abuse and human trafficking, among others.
“Kaninang madaling araw po ay nag-implement ang kapulisan sa Police Regional Office 11 sa warrant of arrest against Quiboloy,” Major Catherine Dela Rey, chief of the Davao Police Regional Office 11 Public Information Office, told INQUIRER.net over the phone.
(Early this morning, the police at Police Regional Office 11 implemented a warrant of arrest against Quiboloy.)
Dela Rey said they received information indicating that Quiboloy was in the compound, prompting the search operation.
“Sa ngayon po ay ongoing pa rin po ‘yung ginagawa nating search sa whole compound kasi malapad ‘yung area,” she explained.
(At present, our search of the entire compound is still ongoing because the area is extensive.)
The search is still ongoing as of 11:30 a.m.
Police raiders first assembled outside the compound at 4 a.m.
They gave the compound administrators 30 minutes to open the gates so that the law enforcers could enter.
The police warned that those persons who would obstruct the service of the warrants would be arrested.
“It did not take them 30 minutes to open the gates to the compound,” Dela Rey told reporters.
The raid is based on an intelligence report on the location of Quiboloy, who admitted that he went into hiding last February.
Dela Rey also confirmed that a male KOJC member died on Saturday morning as the raid was ongoing, but she brushed aside insinuations on social media it was because of the operation.
She said that the KOJC member, who has yet to be identified, was pronounced dead past 6 a.m. at the Southern Philippines Medical Center.
She added that the man must have been physically exhausted from several days and nights of guarding one of the KOJC compound’s gates.
As of 9 a.m., Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, Davao regional police director who was present at the raid, said they have not yet scoured through even half the compound.
READ: ‘Sampal sa kanila:’ Escudero hits PNP’s failure to arrest Quiboloy
On August 22, Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero slammed the PNP for its failure to arrest Quiboloy.
Quiboloy and five others were ordered arrested in April by two separate courts in Davao and Pasig for sexual abuse and qualified human trafficking cases.
It has also been five months since the Senate ordered in March the arrest of Quiboloy for his refusal to face the chamber’s committee on women’s probe into the same allegations and other human rights abuses leveled against him.