Plain and simple, to be a brute is to be an idiot. There is never a hint of intelligence that’s present when inflicting abuse on the hapless. What is worse, when brutality is rained on the citizenry, with the generic excuse that it is legitimately an exercise of state power, the blame shoots high up to whoever is the source of such shameful act. In stark black and white, no justification will ever be enough to cover this. Such is the case in the continuing siege on the Kingdom of Jesus Christ complex in Lanang.
Whether or not there is truth in the saying “history is only written by the victors”, the plight and struggle of small people, even if limited to being just footnotes in their history, can never be dismissed as insignificant. And so it goes. What we have at the moment is a city besieged. Never mind that the actual area is a mere compound not even a percent of the whole city, the implication is enough.
Someone had written that the ongoing blockade and forcible entry into the compound of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) is a simple matter of law versus religion. Here, we beg to disagree. If that were true, no such abuses would not have occurred because the law would not have gone beyond its limits. Perhaps the more fitting description would be politics versus religion. It is quite clear that whoever is behind the ongoing police action and documented brutality against the KOJC members, their supporters and Davaoeños during the recent incursion, has nothing but political motives in their agenda.
On a more important note, the implication of this raid goes far beyond the search for Filipino pastor Apollo Quiboloy. All earlier events and actions (which include the mass transfer of local policemen and then entry of fresh reinforcement from other regions) only lead one to pause and conclude, these could all be machinations of a well-strategized plan, which even supplant, if not supersede the powers and authority of the Davao local government. Even at the latest, the IBP or the Integrated Bar of the Philippines has questioned the legality of certain aspects of the ongoing police action in the KOJC compound, which also include a school; its opening delayed by the intrusion.
As it is, where all these will lead, is a question hanging above everyone’s heads. Incidentally, a well-reported police action which involved the usage of a dodgy and unheard-of apparatus that can monitor a heartbeat even under several feet of concrete, is presently making the rounds of social media. Whether accurate or not, that remains to be seen. For all we know, it’s just one of those ruses meant to portray the level of modernity the police already possess. So far, that doesn’t even answer how many days they’re at it in their encirclement of KOJC and its effect on trade and business, not to mention the lives of all Dabawenyos concerned. In so far as that is concerned, let it be noted that, in fairness, they were quick to action, as though that were a positive. In fact, like the Flash, they were there, in a heartbeat.
