Law enforcement officers serving arrest warrants to fugitive Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) Apollo Quiboloy arrested three KOJC members for obstruction of justice and direct assault against police officers on Monday.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) Davao Region spokesperson, Major Catherine dela Rey, said in an interview over Radyo 630 that those arrested were participating in a rally on Sunday night to prevent PNP officers from arresting Quiboloy and five other KOJC officials who are facing charges of human trafficking and child abuse.
"Right now, we have arrested three people for obstruction of justice and direct assault because we have police colleagues who were injured last night during the rally they did," de la Rey said. She described the JOJC members as "aggressive" and recruited non-members to join their rallies.
"They have recruited other people to join them. What the police did was to employ maximum tolerance. Until now, we are still asking them to remove the vehicles blocking the road, and if they don't really agree, we can resort to dispersal," she added.
The police estimate nearly 200 rallyists roaming the 30-hectare KOJC compound in Buhangin District, Davao City.
The rallyists have blocked the national highway in front of the compound with two cranes, a firetruck, and a winged van, making traffic impassable.
In addition, de la Rey said the KOJC members violated the permit given to them by the city government of Davao to conduct a prayer and candle-lighting rally inside the compound.
"What was written in the permit is that they will conduct it inside the KJC Compound, but what they did — they did it on the highway, and there was no candle lighting, but they burned tires," Dela Rey explained.
But until when will maximum tolerance be implemented? Dela Rey said she has yet to update information about it.
"As of now, I do not have any information on what time the rallyists will be dispersed or the vehicles blocking the road will be removed," she said.
"I hope that the KJC members, as they claimed that they are law-abiding citizens, will show that they are law-abiding citizens by removing those blocking the way and allowing the right of others to pass on the highway," she noted.
Meanwhile, the police said they are searching for the entrance to an alleged underground bunker inside the compound where Quiboloy is believed to be hiding.
Dela Rey said the police use a life detection device for emergency search and rescue missions and have detected "heartbeats" coming from below ground.
"We are looking for the bunker entrance because our life detection device has detected heartbeats underground, not just of one person, but several heartbeats have been detected.
The information we received that Quiboloy and some of his co-accused are still inside the compound is confirmed by this new development," she added.
According to Dela Rey, the violent protests of KOJC members to prevent the police from searching the compound also add to the evidence that the pastor is still inside.
"Their actions that are becoming more aggressive and violent, and the way they prevent us from entering some of the structures there indicate that they are hiding something," she added.
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