President Ferdinand Marcos explained the role of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the recent arrest of Apollo Quiboloy, citing the troops’ presence was at the request of the fugitive pastor.
According to Mr. Marcos, the decision to include the AFP in the final arrest phase was due to a request from Quiboloy himself, who expressed distrust in the police.
“Quiboloy’s representatives communicated with us, saying he was ready to surrender but only if the AFP was present. We agreed to this arrangement,” President Marcos said in an interview on Monday.
The President, however, insisted that Quiboloy’s arrest was primarily led by police forces, who started their operation on August 24.
“Let us be very clear, this was a police-led operation,” he said in a statement.
“Any involvement of the AFP was, as I said, augmentation. The police were in charge from the start,” he added.
The President also said that AFP was deployed to relieve exhausted police officers during the protracted standoff.
“If you recall, after 24 or 36 hours, the police were exhausted. We sent AFP personnel to allow the police to rest, but once the situation was under control, we withdrew the AFP, and the police resumed as the front liners,” he stated
The president also revealed that for the past few weeks, intelligence services across various branches of the government, including both the police and the military, had been monitoring Quiboloy’s movements.
This coordination aimed to determine the best course of action to apprehend the religious leader.
The events leading to Quiboloy’s surrender unfolded over the weeks, during which his legal team proposed several conditions for surrender, including a guarantee against extradition to the United States. However, these conditions were ultimately rejected.
“We were clear that the fugitive could not dictate conditions for his arrest,” Mr. Marcos said.
According to President Marcos, Quiboloy’s camp expressed his willingness to surrender unconditionally on Sunday. The operation began around 9 a.m., and by 3:40 p.m., a C-130 was sent to Davao to fly him to Manila to face the charges against him.
