BLOCKED Police civil disturbance management troops stop Kingdom of Jesus Christ legal counsel Israelito Torreon from going into the basement of Jose Maria College on Tuesday. The police had declared the area off-limits since entering the premises on Aug. 24 in search of fugitive televangelist Apollo Quiboloy and four other KJC members. —Joselle R. Badilla
MANILA, Philippines — The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) filed a sedition case against Atty. Israelito Torreon, lawyer of Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, former National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Marie Badoy-Partosa, and 10 KJC members.
Also named in the complaint are:
- Confessed former rebel Jeffrey Celis a.k.a. Ka Eric,
- Eleanor Cardona,
- Carlo Catiil,
- Kathleen Kaye Laurente,
- Trinidad Arafol,
- Lord Byron Cristobal,
- Joey Espina Sun,
- Esteban C. Lava,
- Jose Lim III,
- Atty. Marie Dinah Tolentino’
- several John and Jane Does
Based on the complaint filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ), Torreon and other respondents barricaded the KJC compound when the police tried to serve the arrest warrant to Quiboloy on Aug. 24.
“Respondent Torreon, Eleonor Cardona, Carlo Catiil, Lorraine Badoy-Partosa, Jeffrey Celis, Kathleen Kay Laurente, Trinidad Arafol along with other supporters and members of the KJC, barricaded the gate and manifested their opposition to the conduct of the operation of the KJC,” read the complaint.
The complaint also stated that vehicles of KJC members and supporters barricaded the highway and attacked members of the police’s Civil Disturbance Unit (CDM).
“Protesters began throwing monoblock chairs and stones at the CDM contingents. They also sprayed fire extinguishers and mocked the officers,” the complaint stated, adding that one police officer sustained a knee injury.
Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson BGen. Jean Fajardo said the complaints were also in relation to the cybercrime law.
“As to the case of inciting to sedition, that’s been documented by the PNP through the ACG and CIDG, what they did, particularly on August 25 and 26 when they put out calls through their social media accounts encouraging their countrymen, particularly KJC members, to rise up and depose the current administration,” she said in Filipino in a briefing at Camp Crame on Thursday afternoon.
The Revised Penal Code states: “The crime of sedition is committed by persons who rise publicly and tumultuously in order to attain by force, intimidation, or by other means outside of legal methods… to prevent the national government, or any provincial or municipal government or any public officer thereof from freely exercising its or his functions, or prevent the execution of any administrative order.”
“Obviously, in the 16-day PNP operation, there was a deliberate attempt on their part to really hide and deny the whereabouts of Apollo Quiboloy and others,” Fajardo said.
“Their blocking, their harming of our police, that’s all documented and is being used by the PNP as supporting evidence in filing the complaints for sedition and inciting to sedition,” she added.
Fajardo also said the PNP is preparing another complaint for obstruction of justice.
Sought for comment, Torreon said for now, “We will leave it at that.”
“We will just wait for the complaint to reach us and file an excellent counter-affidavit,” Torreon told INQUIRER.net.
Last September, Davao police said it was preparing at least 200 cases of obstruction of justice against personalities who stalled the search for Quiboloy.
READ: Police ready 200 cases vs Quiboloy protectors
The embattled preacher emerged from his KJC compound on the afternoon of September 8, just as authorities were ready to assault the building on the 16th day of their operation. With reports from Jason Sigales