CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 23 July) – Unidentified persons ransacked Thursday morning the office of KAPA Community Ministry Inc. founder Joel Apolinario in the Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte and seized money amounting to P180,000, a military official said.
Col. Alexis Noel Bravo, Army Task Force Samal commander said P100,000 came from Apolinario’s parents—Virgilio, 77, and Pacita Lobitania, 71—who have been staying in the resort.
Sea Escape, Island Garden City of Samal, Davao del Norte. Photo courtesy of Task Force Samal
Bravo said the remaining P80,000 came from the caretakers of Sea Escape Resort in Sitio Tambang, Barangay Adecer, Kaputian District, in Island Garden City of Samal.
The incident came a day after Apolinario’s office in Sarangani province was ransacked and two days after his arrest in Lingig, Surigao del Sur.
“The suspects were very familiar with the place and they were looking for the money they believed to be hidden by Joel Apolinario,” Bravo said.
He said the dogs did not bark when the perpetrators entered the resort at 1 a.m. Friday.
Once they were inside, Bravo said, they immediately went to the security office and disconnected all the CCTV cameras.
“They even knew how many caretakers were sleeping in the resort,” he said.
He said that after the culprits gathered Apolinario’s parents and six caretakers, they started ransacking the entire resort looking for money.
The Army official said the registered owner of the resort was identified as Genie Aguelo of Davao City and is believed to be a dummy of Apolinario’s.
Last Wednesday, several of Apolinario’s “investors” ransacked the KAPA office in Alabel, Sarangani.
Johnny Coral, one of the two caretakers of the KAPA Community Ministry International office in Alabel, Sarangani province, said they could do nothing when the ransackers stormed the office and took away whatever they could at 7 a.m. Wednesday (22 July 2020). The office was already empty when MindaNews arrived at the scene before 9 a.m. MindaNews photo by BONG S. SARMIENTO
Caretakers there told police the throng took everything from uninstalled toilet bowls, drawers, flower pots and other items.
Apolinario was arrested by the police in Lingig Tuesday after a brief gun battle that left one of his followers dead and another one injured.
Police said they seized a cache of various high-powered firearms.
KAPA was among the firms in Mindanao ordered closed last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged illegal solicitation of investments from the public.
The commission said the firms were engaged in Ponzi-like schemes. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
