DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 29 Aug)—Lawyer Israelito Torreon, lead counsel of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, said that the police operations at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound are illegal and improper as the police could not do an “intrusive search” into the private property on the basis of one arrest warrant issued by a Pasig City court against Sylvia Cemañes, one of Quiboloy’s co-accused, whose address is in Pasig.
A new shift of policemen about to enter the KOJC compound Thursday noon (29 Aug 2024). MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
He said that the police should have obtained another warrant from the court against Quiboloy and his other co-accused.
Torreon said that the previous warrants were already served by the National Bureau of Investigation on Aug. 9. He added that the police need to obtain an “alias warrant of arrest” for their operation to be valid.
But Maj. Catherine dela Rey, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office – 11, said that the arrest warrants against Quiboloy and the rest of his co-accused are valid while the subjects of the warrants are still not arrested. “They can argue that in the court,” she said.
Torreon added that the police are violating the court-issued temporary protection order (TPO) because their continued presence inside the KOJC compound constitutes restrictions and control, which the protection order sought to avoid.
“We feel that this is a continuing violation of the TPO because these are forms of restrictions and control which we sought to be prevented, to be ceased and desisted, as ordered by the [Regional Trial Court Branch 15] because there are acts and omission that affect the lives, liberty, and properties of KOJC member,” he said.
Torreon said that the first part of the TPO requires police to “cease and desist” from any acts or omissions, affecting or threatening the lives, liberty, and security of the KOJC members, while the second part orders the police to remove the barricades installed inside the property “which hindered the exercise of the members’ religious, academic, and property rights.”
He said the police should have obtained “judicial imprimatur” for its operations that are not in “accordance with the rules or which are not actually done usually in the service of a warrant of arrest.”
“That confirms my statement before that the continued random search, in so far as the entire property of KOJC as well as [Jose Maria College] are concerned, are all illegal to our mind,” Torreon said.
Lawyer Dinah Fuentes, also counsel of Quiboloy, said that the service of warrant should be reasonably enforced.
She said that police operations lasting for six days, with more than 2,000 troops deployed, is no longer reasonable. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
