Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said the DILG “would have to investigate” reports that members of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) subjected some unarmed female police to frisking before allowing them to enter the compound in Davao City in search for fugitive pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
“That is wrong for them to frisk our cops,” Abalos said on Saturday. “I would have to investigate this – the circumstances of this frisking.”
PNP-Davao Region Director Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III said unarmed female cops were body-searched by KOJC members.
During the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights public hearing chaired by Senator Ronald Dela Rosa in Davao City on Friday, Torre said they allowed it after a negotiation with the lawyers of the KOJC on the first day of the search for Quiboloy and five others on Aug. 24.
The KOJC founder and his aides are wanted for qualified human trafficking and violating the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act.
Quiboloy also has a standing warrant of arrest from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for alleged frauds and for sex-trafficking girls and women aged 12 to 25 to work as personal assistants or “pastorals” who were allegedly required to have sex with him.
“During the negotiation, the lawyers did not allow the PNP personnel to go immediately. They only agreed to specific conditions: 10 women personnel and they are to be frisked,” Torre told the committee while showing a video of KOJC members frisking cops.
“We had to endure that kind of humiliation because we will only quarrel with them if we do not follow,” he added.
Torre also showed a video of how they searched the rooms inside the ACQ (Apollo C. Quiboloy) College of Ministry Building, saying the 10 women officers could not do their job properly with KOJC members “swarming, leading, and prohibiting” them from opening some rooms.
KOJC legal counsel Israelito Torreon said the videos presented by Torre were on the ninth day of the search.
“They have already been conducting searches in that area, your honor. I don’t know why they like that area very much, the Bible School. Since Day 1, that has been searched already many times,” Torreon said.
Abalos said the police will not stop until Quiboloy is apprehended.
“Our intel report is that Quiboloy is still in the compound. We’ve got good developments right now but I cannot disclose details,” he said.
“Definitely, we will not stop until we find Quiboloy because that is what the warrant of arrest orders. We will do that and we will find him wherever he may hide,” Abalos added.
