''Police-led operation'' led to the arrest of Quiloboy: Marcos
Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) Pastor Apollo Quiboloy was forced to surrender to military intelligence agents who turned him over to the police Sunday night, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said Monday.
In an interview with reporters, Marcos said although the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was present during the arrest of Quiboloy in the KOJC compound, it was a police-led operation.
“Let’s be very clear, this was a police-led operation. It was a police operation. The involvement of the AFP, as I said, is augmentation,” Marcos said.
Last April, a Pasig City court ordered the arrest of Quiboloy for qualified human trafficking. The Davao City Regional Trial Court also issued a warrant for his arrest for child and sexual abuse.
Quiboloy is also facing charges in the US for conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, and sex trafficking of children.
“We sent the AFP to augment so that our police could rest. But eventually, when that was okay, when our police had recovered, we withdrew the AFP and the police were on the frontlines. So, that’s a standard procedure here in the Philippines. We often do that,” he said.
Marcos said that over the past two weeks, they have been getting messages and feelers and on Sunday morning, they received a message saying that Quiboloy was ready to surrender but requested for the presence of the AFP because he did not trust the police.
He added that around 3:40 pm, a C-130 aircraft fetched Quiboloy from Davao to Manila.
He said Quiboloy gave himself to the military and the police took custody of him when the plane arrived from Davao.
Marcos assured that no special treatment would be given to Quiboloy.
“We now leave Mr. Quiboloy to the judiciary, to the judicial system. Of course, we will make sure that the right procedures will be followed and none of his rights will be violated,” Marcos said.
“So, we will treat him like any other arrested person and we’ll respect his rights, and we will go through the process. The process will be transparent. Everyone who is involved will be accountable,” he said.
In a separate press briefing, Police Regional Office 11 (PRO-11) Director Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III said that the police found Quiboloy in the Bible school within the KOJC compound.
“As of last night, I was not authorized to speak about it. So now the PNP(Philippine National Police) chief and the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) are giving me the authority to tell. He was really in the Bible school. The formal name is ACQ College Ministry and we have surrounded that for the past how many days,” Torre said.
“During the Senate hearing on Friday, we showed the floor plan because the OBO (Office of the Building Official) of Davao City) did not want to give us one for whatever reason, so I did not question it,” he added. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
