Bato slams long stay of police at KOJC compound

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa sees no reason for the extended stay of police who are searching for wanted pastor Apollo Quiboloy at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound in Davao City.

Police have been looking for Quiboloy inside the KOJC compound over the past two weeks, with warrants of arrest issued against him for cases of sexual assault and human trafficking.

They believe – based on intelligence and equipment – that the fugitive pastor is still inside the compound, and have been digging a hole under a building basement to find him.

“I find no further justification for them (police) to stay any longer,” Dela Rosa, who conducted an ocular inspection at the KOJC compound, said yesterday.

“From my point of view, I don’t see any reason for the extended stay of our policemen at the expense of the students who are studying here, at the expense of the exercise of the religion of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and at the expense of the freedom of movement of the persons inside,” he added.

During the Senate hearing, Dela Rosa stressed giving the members of KOJC “peace of mind.”

“It is clear that if there’s an existing tunnel there, it would have been found after 13 days,” he said.

Regardless of Dela Rosa’s statement, Philippine National Police Region XI Director Nicolas Torre III insisted that the police “will not stop until Mr. Quiboloy is found.”

The senator also said that, based on his initial investigation, there is “irregularity in the search in the absence of a search warrant” and further stressed that it is a gross mistake for the police to dig inside the KOJC compound, especially since they still haven’t found Quiboloy.

During the Senate inspection, there was no hole found in the basement of the Jose Maria College (JMC) building – one of the structures at the compound – only a portion of still uncured cement floor.

However, Khashayar Toghyani, officer in charge of the Office of the City Building Official, said that the portion of concrete floor the senator inspected is one to two days old.

After the Senate ocular inspection and during the Senate hearing, Torre was forced to admit that they had dug a hole under the JMC building