After days of search at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound in Davao City, KOJC founder, Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, is now with authorities.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Sunday, September 8, 2024, that the pastor has been arrested.
In his Facebook post, DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos, shared a picture of Quiboloy together with the chief legal counsel of KOJC, Atty. Israelito Torreon.
In a separate interview, however, the Eastern Mindanao Command said that Quiboloy turned himself in to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines inside the KOJC compound.
No other specific details were disclosed but Police Regional Office-Davao (PRO-11) Director, Brigadier General Nicolas Torre III, said Quiboloy was put in a C-130 plane.
Torre lauded all the police officers who took part in the search for Quiboloy, including the members of KOJC.
The search for Quiboloy began on August 24, 2024 with up to 2,000 policemen deployed to serve a warrant at the KOJC compound.
The operation led to other issues with KOJC protesting the alleged abuses committed by policemen, including the alleged destruction of properties inside the compound.
Evening on August 24, KOJC members took their grievances to the streets near the Davao airport, which disrupted traffic and prompted authorities to make changes to airport operations.
The chief legal counsel of KOJC, Atty. Israelito Torreon, said Quiboloy made a sacrifice by turning himself in to authorities because’ he does not want lawless violence to continue to happen in the compound and he could not bear to witness a second longer the sufferings that his flock was experiencing for many days.’
Torreon said Quiboloy could not be reached for several days as he was waiting for positive results for the legal remedies his lawyers have availed.
“However, heart-wrenching and mind-boggling events transpired where a warrant of arrest has been turned into a license to convert his beloved KOJC Compound into a police garrison, the sacred KOJC Cathedral being desecrated, the JMC School turned into a mining pit, his followers as recipients of brutalities, one of whom even died, scores injured, many got arbitrarily arrested, vehicles unilaterally confiscated, all of which caused Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s heart to bleed,” Torreon said in a Facebook post.