BLOCKING FORCE After blocking a stretch of a highway with trucks and other vehicles on Sunday night, Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) members stage a rally outside the sect’s headquarters in Davao City, to protest a raid on the compound to search for a fugitive televangelist Apollo Quiboloy. Police dispersed them on Monday. —Germelina Lacorte
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos on Monday called on fugitive televangelist Apollo Quiboloy to surrender, as police that day dispersed hundreds of his followers in Davao City and dismantled their barricades on the highway leading to the compound of his Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) sect.
Abalos was in Kidapawan City on Monday attending a festival in the Cotabato provincial capital 58 kilometers west of Davao City, Quiboloy’s hometown and the bailiwick of his allies, the Duterte family.
READ: Palace on Quiboloy’s arrest warrant: ‘The law must take its course’
“We have a process, we have a justice system we have to follow,” the chief of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) told reporters when asked about the police gathered outside the KJC compound since Saturday in another attempt to arrest Quiboloy. Earlier in April, policemen also gathered outside the 30-hectare property but failed, amid his supporters’ resistance, to apprehend the fugitive preacher, who faces a slew of trafficking charges here and abroad.
On the third day of what has become a standoff between police and Quiboloy’s followers, Abalos denied that the renewed drive to arrest the televangelist was ordered by Malacañang.
“This is purely a police operation. It is based on intelligence report[s],” said Abalos, who, as DILG chief, has supervision over the Philippine National Police as well as local officials such as Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte.
“They (the PNP) know better than me. If they feel there is adequate intelligence report, so be it. If they feel they have to serve it (arrest warrant) now or tomorrow or what, so be it. I don’t want to be obstructionist,” he said.
‘Unauthorized occupation’
In Manila, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin told reporters that Quiboloy “is answerable to the law, [so] the law must take its course.”
Mayor Sebastian Duterte, in a statement on Monday, criticized the police for “no longer following proper procedure in implementing the warrant, especially in the use of excessive force against innocent citizens and their unauthorized occupation at the KJC compound.”
“As much as I want to intervene, the police personnel will only listen to the PNP chief (Police Gen. Rommel Marbil) and their Commander in Chief, President Bongbong Marcos,” Duterte said.
Marbil visited Davao City amid the ensuing standoff between the police and the Quiboloy camp.
Earlier, he brushed off rumors that police would cut off water and electricity in the KJC compound to force Quiboloy to surface.
“We have to follow human rights,” he said.
On Monday afternoon, the police dispersed a rally by Quiboloy’s followers along CP Garcia Highway, not far from the compound, as they set up barriers that obstructed traffic since Sunday night.
But by 7 p.m., they gathered into a bigger group outside the Jose Maria College in Sasa village, as they chanted “Duterte! Duterte!” and demanded President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s resignation.
‘How long?’
Addressing Quiboloy’s supporters, Duterte said: “We acknowledge the right of the members of the KJC to protest. However, I am asking you to do it in a peaceful manner and refrain from doing activities that will disrupt traffic flow to ensure the safety of your members and of the public.”
“This situation has already caused inconvenience to motorists, businesses, and the public. The public seeks clarification from the PNP, how long do you intend to stay at the KJC property?” asked Duterte, whose father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, is Quiboloy’s appointed administrator of the KJC estate.
Abalos appealed for public understanding, saying, “That’s how tedious this [operation] is.”
“So I call on the people to understand the work of the police. They really have to search from room to room to room. Just bear with them. What is important is they should follow the law. No one fires a gun or punches someone,” he said.
Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, Davao regional police chief, said their ground penetrating radar, which detects human temperature and heartbeat, had already located the underground bunker where Quiboloy and his coaccused were supposedly holed up.
“This is it. Maybe Pastor Quiboloy will have [the] sense to just surrender because it’s just a matter of time. He should no longer make it difficult for himself by hiding in the bunker,” Torre told reporters on Sunday, adding that what police did on Saturday was conduct a general survey of the compound.
He said that their findings of “an underground facility” was consistent with the information shared by informants.
The equipment the raiders are employing, Torre added, “can penetrate walls [and] can count people behind the wall.”
Abalos said: “I hope no one obstructs [this operation] so that we could finish it. The sooner it is [done], the better for everyone. Of course, I also call on Pastor Quiboloy to surrender so that all these [should] end.” —with a report from Melvin Gascon