Quiboloy’s arrest operation ‘unprecedented in scale’- Torre
DAVAO CITY–The 16-day police operation that led to the arrest of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) sect was considered unprecedented in scale in the country’s history and a test case for the provision in the Rules of Court that allow law enforcers to break into buildings or enclosures, top police officers here said.
The large number of police officers deployed and the length of time spent to to arrest one person hiding within his 30-hectare compound has never been done in the country before, according to Police Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre, the ground commander of “Operation Plan Teknon Alpha” for the arrest Quiboloy.
The operation involved 4,500 troops at its height and cost the government P35 million, said Torre, then regional director of the Davao Police Regional Office (PRO 11) who is now the acting director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.
Torre said it was very important for the police to arrest a wanted person like Quiboloy, a moneyed and influential person protected by “powerful” persons, because “how could the police effectively arrest violators of even a simple smoking ordinance if they could not arrest a person facing a much more serious offense?” he asked.
He said the “plan proper” of Oplan Teknon Alpha consisted only of five pages but the supporting documents consisted of at least five reams of paper, because aside from arresting officers and personnel, it involved an elaborate mobilization of men and resources — from hundreds of civil disturbance management troops, medical and security teams and investigators down to kitchen preparations, portable toilets, transportation and supply.
“It was almost like going to war,” recalled Torre in a lunch meeting with local journalists last Sunday.
Lawyer Israelito Torreon, Quiboloy’s legal counsel, also noted it was the first time in the country that an arrest operation went beyond eight hours.
Not expecting the arresting troops to stay in the KOJC compound after eight hours, Torreon questioned the operation as “illegal,” and filed a slew of cases in court.
Section 11
But police lawyers based their actions on Section 11 of the Rule 113 of the Rules of Court, the provision of the law that allowed the officer of the law to break into an establishment or enclosure when they had reasonable grounds to believe that the subject of their warrant of arrest was just inside the building or enclosure.
Police Col. Joseph Orson, chief of the legal office of PRO-Soccsksargen (South Cotabato or Cotabato del Sur, Cotabato del Norte, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos), said the operation to arrest Quiboloy can be considered a test case for this particular provision.
When applied to Quiboloy’s case, police were allowed to break into not only just one building but the KOJC compound, which, according to Torre, showed signs of Quiboloy’s presence after weeks of surveillance and meticulous intelligence works.
Police also counted on Section 11 when, failing to find the entrance to an underground facility detected by ground penetrating devices and other technologies employed during the operation, Torre decided to dig a tunnel deep into the basement of the Jose Maria College Building in the KOJC compound.
Surrender arrangements
On Sept. 8, the 16th day of the operation, and just as the police were poised to assault the Bible School Building, where Quiboloy was confirmed to be hiding, Torre received a note from top Philippine National Police (PNP) officials that Quiboloy already agreed to “surrender” but to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).
To ensure that this was for real, Torre asked that Quiboloy should appear to a trusted police officer 30 minutes before the military plane was to land at the Philippine Air Force’s Tactical Operations Group (TOG) 11’s air station in the city, which is located beside the Davao International Airport (DIA).
Torre said Police Brig. General Romeo J. Macapaz, the PNP’s deputy director for intelligence who was tasked to fetch Quiboloy, arranged with him the latter’s safe entry into Waxi’s, a KOJC-owned fastfood outlet that connects to the KOJC ground near the Bible School Building, officially known as ACQ College of Ministries, then already surrounded by hundreds of Special Action Force (SAF) troops poised for assault.
“Our troops were already poised for attack so the last thing that he (Macapaz) wanted was to be mistaken as a KOJC member,” Torre said.
True enough, as Macapaz entered the receiving area, at least three KOJC ministers showed up with Quiboloy.
With Quiboloy’s were his four co-accused – Teresita Tolibas Dandan and Helen Panilag, all of whom were wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for several charges in the United States, including fraud and sex trafficking, also surrendered with Quiboloy.
Quiboloy, his lawyer and Macapaz were in one of the nine vehicles that brought them to the TOG 11 grounds, passing through the KOJC hangar.
According to Torre, he had to breach three steel gates — that of the KOJC, the DIA and the old airport — to allow the convoy to reach the TOG 11 grounds where the C-130 plane was waiting.
“I had to do that so that the convoy of vehicles would not use the public highway,” he said.
