Think-tank urges Duterte to crack down on Kapa ‘donor’ Rhema

Infrawatch PH, an infrastructure-oriented think-tank, on Friday claimed that Rhema International Livelihood Foundation Inc., a self-proclaimed “donor” of Kapa Ministry International Inc., is involved in cases of spurious land titles, land grabbing and professional squatting.

In a statement, Infrawatch PH convenor Terry Ridon called on President Rodrigo Duterte to crack down on Rhema as the Chief Executive did to Kapa.

“We have reason to believe that Rhema may be involved in a conspiracy with Kapa Ministry, and that it may be undertaking its own type of financial scheme through its Cirfund online platform, which the Securities and Exchange Commission also recently flagged as an unregistered investment entity,” Ridon said.

“The public should note that Rhema had been involved in several controversial court cases involving spurious land titles, land grabbing and professional squatting,” he added.

Ridon formerly chaired the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP).

“As far as our foundation is concerned, all cases are on court procedures. We are the victims of the real land grabbers,” lawyer Engracio Icasiano, chief legal counsel of Rhema, told GMA News Online.

Icasiano said Rhema’s name has been “marred by the media and by the rich senators ...” he did not elaborate.

Ridon issued the anti-Rhema statement after the company filed a petition before the Supreme Court last week seeking P3 billion in damages for having been listed by the Securities and Exchange Commission as an unregistered investment entity.

It also asked the court to have Duterte be submitted to impeachment proceedings for violating the Bill of Rights under the Constitution. 

The petition asked the court to:

“Let all private respondents—Rodrigo R. Duterte and Chairman Emilio B. Aquino, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—pay the compensatory damages amounting to P3,000,000,000.00 for destroying Cirfund, an online platform project of Rhema International Livelihood Foundation Inc. and be dismissed from office and the President be submitted for an impeachment proceedings for culpable violation of Art. II Sec. 6 and Art. III known as the Bill of Rights of the Philippine Constitution.”

Rhema likewise asked for its online platform Cirfund to be “expunged” from the SEC’s list of unregistered investment entities, and for Kapa, which the president had ordered closed, to be able “to resume their religious activity.”

Ridon claimed that as far back as 2012, government agencies had already been alerted on fabricated and spurious land titles being presented by Rhema.

“In a letter to the Philippine Army Task Group Bantay on 23 October 2012, no less than the head of the Land Registration Authority Task Force Titulong Malinis, Leila Astronomia, said that allegedly certified microfilm copies of several land titles presented and utilized by Rhema ‘are all fabricated and spurious documents’,” Ridon also claimed.

“In fact, the LRA had recommended that the National Bureau of Investigation conduct an investigation on these specific fabrications. It may be time for the NBI to restart formal inquiries into Rhema in light of previous actions and this present one involving Kapa Ministry,” he added.

Ridon noted that during his stint at the urban poor commission, Rhema was among the most often mentioned groups claiming ownership of vast parcels of Metro Manila by virtue of Spanish title, despite many other land documents showing otherwise.

“Rhema was identified as one of the most active groups masquerading as a legitimate urban poor organization,” he said.

“Similar syndicates go around urban poor communities claiming ownership over parcels of government and private land, and collect rent from hapless urban poor families for ‘rights’ over these areas. Clearly, with this pattern of shady dealings, government should include Rhema in its comprehensive crackdown on large-scale con artists,” he added.

“Rhema was said to have presented in court a land title using a correction fluid, with a heading stating ‘Commonwealth of the Philippines’ at a time when the commonwealth was not yet even established. The public and the President should know that these are the types of personalities duping our marginalized sectors,” Ridon claimed. —VDS, GMA News