Frankly, we find it very hard to fathom why some people are so obsessed in having their own narratives on the circumstances leading to the surrender of then fugitive Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy who had been in hiding for already almost half a year.
To whomever Quiboloy surrendered last Sunday, September 8, 2024 towards evening does not matter now. After all, the massive search operation of the Pastor-in-hiding was admitted as a “group effort” among the various law enforcement groups of the government. Only, that by virtue of their Constitutionally-defined duties and responsibilities the Philippine National Police (PNP) has to be tasked to do the lead role.
But for some sectors most especially those led by the Pastor’s legal team, insisting that the religious leader was not arrested by the police and that he surrendered instead to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), they only succeeded in betraying their “covert” motive. And that is, to cushion the humiliation that they could have likely faced had the Pastor been handcuffed after finding him inside a room of a building in the KOJC compound strictly prohibited entry by anyone during the police presence inside.
And the same level of humiliation would have been suffered by all others – politicians included –after they insisted that the Pastor and his cohorts are not inside the compound but have gone to somewhere else including having gone to the heavens.
Why do these people settle with the fact that the Pastor is finally in the custody of the courts, the very purpose why the lawmen went to the extent of literally occupying the 30-hectare compound of the KOJC’s main headquarters. For now what is clear is that certain individuals and groups want to give the credit of Quiboloy’s surrender to the ISAFP even if they know that it was the Pastor’s remaining option to elude the police dragnet that during those hours last Sunday afternoon was closing in on him and his four other co-accused.
Of course we might just have to agree with the Pastor and his legal advisers that the fugitives believe they feel more secure if they gave up with the ISAFP. For who would not feel unsafe when one like the elusive Pastor gave a run-around of the policemen for several months already until he and his cohorts decided to hand over themselves to the ISAFP?
Of course we do not believe that the ISAFP is that desirous of the credit for being the unit of choice of the religious leader to give himself up. But there may be one, two, or three who could be that interested of the credit.
Now if the police through its top leaders will publicly claim that the credits should only be theirs and theirs alone then by all means the ISAFP and the civilian leaders who claimed to have bridged the Pastor to influential AFP officials must further enhance the presentation of their version of the circumstances.
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So the Pastor decided to surrender because he does not want his subjects to continue suffering from the violations of their rights and other abuses by the Police who have virtually occupied the whole of the compound of his Church?
Such assertion by the Reverend Pastor intrigued us somehow. How come it took him quite a long time to realize that he felt extreme pity to his followers who have been braving the heat of the sun and the drenching wetness of the rains during the time they were all out in defending the KOJC compound – their sacred ground – from being “desecrated” by the police?
For certain his lawyers and other church officials who were leading the barricade to deter entry of the police, could have informed the religious leader the many injuries they claimed to have happened. But somehow, these reports of what had been happening in the vicinity and inside the compound seemed to have been ignored?
This “delayed” act of commiseration by the Church leader to his suffering members is far in contrast with the actions taken by his lawyers, which without doubt, with the Pastor’s instruction. We are referring to the plan of Quiboloy’s counsel to petition the courts that the Pastor be placed on “house arrest” instead of being placed inside a Bureau of Jail Management facility. According to his lawyers the Pastor is now old being 74 years of age.
Should the petition be filed, then the ball will now be with the Courts. Will they agree with the lawyers’ contention that the accused religious leader is that old at 74? Will the courts be convinced that having hidden for almost half a year and survived is indicative of an ageing person who needs to be incarcerated in the luxury of his many mansions on earth, and as the Pastor claim, “in heaven?”
We can only hope that in the deliberation of this petition should it be pursued, the responsible court should be able to scrutinize all the supporting proofs of the decreasing physical capabilities due to old age and weigh the possible consequences should the petition be granted.
