DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos, PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil present Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Apollo Quiboloy and his four co-accused at Camp Crame in Quezon City on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. Also present is Police Regional Office 11 director Brig. Gen. Nicanor Torre who led the operation since Aug. 24, 2024. 

The outcome would have been different if Pastor Apollo Quiboloy chose not to surrender as the police were all determined to end the hide-and-seek game on Sunday, Sept. 8, through an assault in the building inside the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) compound in Davao City where he was hiding.

And that decision, which can also be attributed to an order from the higher-ups to give room for a negotiation, was what prompted Police Regional Office 11 director Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III to believe that Jesus loves the policemen for He spared them of the possible bloody result of a police operation.

“Don’t take it against me but it’s really on my part that the Lord intervened for this to happen. The Lord loves the policemen because it did not end up in a scenario that could endanger the lives of many people. This was resolved in our favor,” said Torre in a press briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

Torre’s statement shot down the claims of the camp of Quiboloy that the surrender was an ultimate sacrifice for his flock and that he voluntarily surrendered to the police and the military. 

“The bottom line is that he had no other options,” said Torre.

Asked to expound, Torre said that they have already surrounded the ACQ College Ministry in the past few days after obtaining validated information that Quiboloy was inside. 

The ACQ is one of the buildings inside the KOJC compound. 

And on Saturday morning, Sept. 7, after the Friday Senate hearing, there was already a go-signal from Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil to conduct an assault on the building using police elite forces.

“We surrounded it and made sure that no one could go out. The assault was supposed to be at 1 p.m. on Saturday but we delayed it to the next day in deference to the bar exams because there was a bar ops (for the students) as explained by Quiboloy’s lawyer,” said Torre.

Torre said he yielded to the request of the lawyer and on the next day, Sunday, Torre said he ordered the prepositioning of 500 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos and 500 more personnel of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT).

“They were asking about the presence of a number of policemen and I said that we will look for Quiboloy because the past two weeks, it’s always your way,” said Torre.

At 10 a.m. on Sunday, Torre said they received surrender feelers and he said they decided to hold the assault until 1 p.m. after top police officials called up to give way to the negotiation for surrender 

‘Lokohan’ 

Some of the police officials no longer trust the KOJC camp on surrender claims since they have been hearing about it from them since Sept. 1.

Marbil, for instance, said that they received at least two surrender feelers from the camp of Quiboloy since more than 2,400 policemen occupied the KOJC compound on Aug. 24.

“We already observed that they are fooling us. They prevented us from entering certain areas and when we were about to enter areas where we believe he (Quiboloy) is there, their attorney would call and would say that he would surrender,” said Marbil.

“They did that several times and later, they would file a case,” he added.

In deciding to end the search on Sunday, Sept. 9, what Marbil had in mind was that the KOJC camp would again delay the police operation until weekdays when they could run to the court anew for legal intervention.

A local court earlier issued a protection order which ordered the police to remove all the blockades inside the KOJC compound. The court order, however, was later rejected by the Court of Appeals.

‘It ends today’

Torre said he gave an order several times for the policemen to prepare for the assault. 

Based on the agreement, the presence of a military plane at the Davao International Airport was a signal of a successful negotiation but Torre said he did not receive any confirmation of the arrival of a plane. 

But he said he received another call to wait. But he said that if would not see any airplane within 30 minutes, he would order the start of the assault. 

The final decision was to start the assault before 6 p.m. Fortunately, the military plane arrived and it was then that the operation was called off. 

A nine-vehicle convoy then left the private hangar of the KOJC at around 5:30 p.m. and at around 6 p.m., Quiboloy and his four co-accused were seen boarding the plane.  

Quiboloy and his co-accused Crisente and Ingrid Canada, Sylvia Cemañes, and Jackielyn Roy are now detained at the PNP Custodial Center.