LAW enforcement operations have been going on 24/7 at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound in Davao City to serve arrest warrants on pastor Apollo Quiboloy and his co-accused who are wanted for child abuse and human trafficking.
The whole organization of the Philippine National Police (PNP) is losing its credibility and whatever institutional reputation it still has, each day that it fails to get Quiboloy who is believed to be hiding somewhere in his 30-hectare compound which is also used as principal place of worship by his followers.
PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil said his cops will continue to search the compound until they get the religious leader the government has called a “fugitive” without getting conviction in a court of law.
`Where are all the millions of intelligence funds given to the PNP, the DILG, the Napolcom and other security bodies and offices by the national budget?’
The PNP’s first try at arresting Quiboloy was last month, when they assigned a full battalion of policemen to scour the area for the pastor, only to let the operation go when they failed.
The move resulted in a series of violent confrontations between the pastor’s followers and the police, the embarrassing confusion in the designation of police chiefs in Davao province, Davao City, and the Davao regional police office, and charges and counter-charges of human rights violations between the camp of former President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter Vice President Sara on one hand, and the PNP and
The interior department on the other.
Marbil is unflinching in his position to serve the warrant in person to Quiboloy, saying, “As long as we are not able to serve the warrant of arrest and we are certain that the person is inside, then we have legal ground to stay longer, especially right now that we unearthed more cases of human trafficking against these people.”
It was like in the movies, this scene last Saturday morning when over 2,000 policemen in combat uniform and their long firearms swooped down on the sprawling KOJC compound, looking for the pastor and his companions named in the arrest warrants. KOJC members, of course, claimed their leader was being persecuted by government, and mounted whatever physical resistance they could muster.
Also just like in the movies, subplots have emerged – conjectures touted by PNP officials such as the KOJC compound has a tunnel or a series of tunnels like in Gaza, where Quiboloy could be hiding, and these structures could be used in his escape.
The PNP in the area, under Davao police regional office chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, has been using modern technology in their work, such as ground-penetrating radar that are usually used in locating people trapped in collapsed mining caves. They also use sniffing dogs which are trained to track down people.
The PNP operation to look for Quiboloy is now on its Phase 2, with Torre still complaining the compound is too big and has many buildings having a lot of entrances and exits. Does the PNP have a basic map of the place, photographs taken from camera drones, etc.?
Where are all the millions of intelligence funds given to the PNP, the DILG, the Napolcom and other security bodies and offices by the national budget? These funds should have been used for intelligence and surveillance which have become very important in this operation.
As the police organization continues to fail and wallow in shame in this Davao debacle, the possibility always looms that Quiboloy might join the long list of celebrities that the security forces failed to arrest – Arnie Teves, Alice Guo, Jose Alvarez, top communist leaders and Muslim rebels who continue to fight the government. The PNP must rethink its basic operational manual on arrests and searches.
