The country has never been in a more tragic state

Former President Rodrigo Duterte said on Sunday, August 25, 2024, that the country has “never been in a more tragic state” after police attempted to arrest Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.

In a statement, Duterte accused the police led by Davao Regional Police Office chief Brigadier General Nicolas Torre of forcibly entering the KOJC compound, which led to a violent clash with Quiboloy supporters on Saturday, August 24.

One KOJC member died of a heart attack, while “many others” required medical attention because they resisted police action.

Duterte described the incident as “political harassment, persecution, violence and abuse of power.”

“Rights have been trampled upon and our laws have been mocked… This undoubtedly casts a dark shadow on the hands of those involved in today's incidents, led by none other than the highest-ranking police officers in the region,” Duterte said.

“We call on the remaining decent and patriotic members of our government not to allow themselves to be abused and not to resort to abuse and violence in enforcing illegal orders,” he added.

The former Supreme Leader called on all Filipinos, regardless of their political persuasion, to pray for peace and justice and to protect the people of KOJC from the unwarranted tensions caused by the reign of fear and terror by people who are sworn to uphold the law and protect the citizens of this country.

“Let us once again ask this government how it can guarantee the preservation of the constitutional rights of our fellow Filipinos when even the most basic of these rights are blatantly violated,” he added.

Quiboloy appointed Duterte as the new administrator of KOJC's property after former members of the organization issued arrest warrants against him on charges of human trafficking and child abuse.

This is the second time police have raided the KOJC premises to arrest Quiboloy and her four other co-accused. One of his co-accused was arrested in July.

A reward of P10 million was offered for information leading to Quiboloy's arrest.

In an interview with reporters, Torre said they would not leave the 30-hectare property until they found Quiboloy and his co-defendant.

“Meron tayong life detector is designed to destroy structures. Dati sniffing dogs are essential for their purposes. “Look, as far as equipment is concerned, the quality of equipment is no longer there, the quality is low, the quality is high,” he said.

(We have a life detector that we use when buildings collapse. We used to use sniffer dogs to find out if anyone was there. Now we have devices that, if we put them on the concrete, we can tell if anyone is there.)

“Sa ganitong sistema, hindi makukuha ito ngayong araw ito (Saturday). I want to help you do this as a pastor who has the opportunity to do this or the person who met you. Nasa did not make it. If not, then we will publish the rooms that have nothing to do with themselves, but nothing, but also nothing. “It can display pictures of pictures, it can display pictures of pictures, it can also display new pictures,” he added.

(In this system, we will not be able to arrest him today (Saturday). We will work hard here until Pastor realizes that we are not leaving here until we get him and his colleagues. This is up to them. We will saw and publish the rooms of their children and their relatives. There are children's rooms, there are pictures of children, there are girls' names there.)

Quiboloy had previously stated that he would not allow anyone to capture him alive and accused the Philippine government of colluding with the US government to facilitate his “extraordinary rendition”.

Quiboloy faces 43 charges in the United States, including forced prostitution, including with children, money laundering, fraud and coercion. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)