Court orders PNP: Remove barricades on Quiboloy turf

POLICE CORDON Civil disobedience management troops of the Philippine National Police remain outside the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound in Davao City on Tuesday, the fourth day of their standoff with followers of fugitive televangelist Apollo Quiboloy. —Joselle R. Badilla

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The camp of Apollo Quiboloy scored a legal victory on the fourth day of the police standoff with his supporters, when the Supreme Court affirmed a temporary protection order (TPO) issued by a Davao City court on Tuesday in connection with a writ of amparo filed by his Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) sect and another group.

This means “PNP (Philippine National Police-Region) XI is hereby ordered to remove all forms of barricades, barriers or blockades that bar the access to and from the subject compound and hinder the petitioners’ religious, academic and propriety rights,” said the TPO issued by Presiding Judge Mario Duaves of Branch 15 of the Davao Regional Trial Court.

READ: ‘Don’t celebrate yet’: PNP to stay at KJC compound despite court order

Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, Davao regional police chief, said on Tuesday afternoon: “We respect the TPO and we will abide by it.” But he did not elaborate as to whether he meant that his officers would be pulled out of the premises of the KJC Compound.

But Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos maintained that nothing in the order stated that “we should stop our operations.”

“The operations to find Pastor Quiboloy [continue],” Abalos told reporters in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Supreme Court spokesperson Camille Ting affirmed the Davao court order, saying that the PNP is indeed directed to remove all barricades barring access to and from KJC’s headquarters as well as the premises of the Jose Maria College Foundation Inc. (JMCFI), where Quiboloy’s followers had also gathered since Saturday.

Ting said, however, that the protection order “does not deter the [PNP in its] service of the warrant.”

Petitioners’ rights

KJC and JMCFI sought the writ against Abalos and the PNP in a petition filed on July 1 before the Davao court.

A writ of amparo is a legal remedy intended to protect individuals from violations or threats to their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and security.

Quiboloy faces charges of sexual abuse of children and qualified human trafficking here in the country.

In the United States, he is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion; sex trafficking of children; and bulk cash smuggling, among other charges.

The sequence of events since Saturday, however, would show that Quiboloy’s followers and not the police, apart from its cordon, have been the ones setting up barricades — even parking heavy vehicles, including tractors, on the highway leading to the KJC Compound since Sunday night.

Nevertheless, Duaves, in his order, said the restrictions imposed by the PNP “noticeably trampled not only the property rights of the petitioners, its officers, and members but also the exercise of their religious freedom and academic rights.”

On Monday afternoon, police were able to disperse Quiboloy’s supporters and restore normal traffic along the Carlos P. Garcia Highway.

‘Biased media!’

But by early evening, police again confronted the televangelist’s followers, this time outside JMCFI.

Around two hours later, journalists covering that incident, including reporters and a television crew from UNTV, TV5, and PTV, were allowed to walk past a police blockade.

Some KJC members tried to follow the media but were stopped by police, prompting them to shout at the journalists: “Bayaran!” (On the take!) and “biased media!”

Edith Caduaya of Davao City-based Newsline Philippines, who was among the journalists allowed by police to pass through, sought to explain to her hecklers that she was only helping escort the other journalists.

Amid that heated exchange, the PTV vehicle drove past the police line, with driver Arnel Rebayla thinking the police had already let them through.

The Newsline pickup, driven by Caduaya’s daughter Thea, followed, and the sight of the two vehicles moving past the police blockade further angered the KJC members who tried to stop the pickup, shouting “Atras (back off), biased media!”

A man in black was caught in the video throwing bottled water at the retreating vehicles.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) urged everyone involved in the standoff to “remain calm,” adding that “media is not the enemy.”

The group also urged the government to “ensure media workers’ safety from unwarranted attacks as they were only there to cover.”

‘What rights violations?’

Meanwhile, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. dismissed allegations of human rights violations raised by Quiboloy’s allies against the PNP.

“Is it human rights violation when a huge number of police officers show up?” Marcos told reporters in an interview on Tuesday.

“You can go to any human rights advocate, there’s nothing that we did — all those who entered the compound were unarmed, and not one carried a firearm. We did not use teargas, nothing of that sort. So where’s the human rights violation?”

“The reason we did this was so that we could maintain the peace. The only way to maintain the peace is to make sure that the area is safe and is secure,” he added.

“That task cannot be carried out with just a dozen policemen; the inspection alone would have required many police officers,” Marcos said, adding that the situation would have been more tense if there were fewer police officers deployed to the KJC Compound.

The president also rejected allegations that the search for Quiboloy was politically motivated.

“I do not see what [critics] are talking about that this is political — that is not true,” he said.

—WITH REPORTS FROM MELVIN GASCON AND JOHN ERIC MENDOZA