The Police Regional Office (PRO) XI’s Director Brig. Gen. Nicolas D. Torre III was quoted by the local media saying that the primordial concern of the law enforcement in his area of responsibility is to arrest fugitive Pastor Rev. Apollo C. Quiboloy. The religious sect leader has been able to dodge the arms of the law for the past several months after arrest warrants were issued against him in a Davao and Pasig courts. He is also reportedly wanted in the United States for crimes he allegedly committed in that country. The question however is, “How far has the tracking by the police of the whereabouts of Quiboloy covered? Have the law enforcers combed all areas in Davao City where the Pastor might have taken refuge?
Yes, other law enforcement agencies who have men assigned to join the police in the Quiboloy manhunt should be made aware – if they are not yet – that their prey has several loyal and influential church members and friends who can provide him the most unlikely hiding places. In fact some of his friends and members have “rest” facilities that cannot be touched even with the proverbial
“ten-foot pole,” including that of the police.
This is the reason why we agree to claims of some sectors that the Pastor has not gone out of the country, not even of Davao City. He knows that he is much safer under the care of his followers and friends who may be the ones lending him the “Alcatras” for his hiding place.
Now, will the “strangers” among the policemen currently running the Regional and Davao City police offices be able to locate those impregnable sanctuaries of the religious leader? And if they do , can their “pole” be able to catapult them to the inside of the compound of the Pastor’s hiding place? Will the law enforcers be able to get a court order allowing them to enter and search the area?
All those are potential dilemmas of those who are tasked to arrest the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church (KoJC) sect leader.
So, may be it is too early for the PRO XI director to openly talk to the public of arresting Reverend Quiboloy as his priority. It would have been better for him to let the multi-million peso reward money do its thing first and from there work silently and make a big splash when the police mission is done.
Davao, after all, is definitely strange territory for the Regional Police Director and this early in his term he knows he is met with skepticism by local civilian officials considering the political enmity between the Davaoeno former President and the incumbent.
Thus, we would not be surprised if he will have serious difficulties in initially undertaking his responsibilities especially in Davao City.
We can only hope that PRO XI Director Torre III will be able to do some “miracles” that will allow him to wiggle into the hearts and minds of the Davaoenos, most importantly to the city’s leaders.
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We here in Davao City, are certainly dumb-founded seeing the Metro Manila cities and surrounding municipalities submerged in dirty, deep and dangerous flood water in just a matter of days of heavy rains brought about by super-typhoon Carina that hit a significant area of Luzon island, not even directly the Greater Manila region.
It was as if we were brought back to the biblical time of Noah who built an ark to shelter the people and animal species selected by God the Creator, to survive. We do not know if we can call the Metro Manila deluge an “auspicious” entry of the feared La Nina phenomenon after only a few days that the government weather forecasting and monitoring agency PaG-ASA announced the official end of the long dry season El Nino.
But definitely the massive flood that is not expected to subside to the fullest even up to today is devastating to the lives of people and to the economy of the country.
Yes, many big businesses are put to a temporary stop while managements or owners are cleaning its compounds and display buildings as well as sorting out merchandise. Industries located in the flooded areas have to reduce operations if not totally stop while fixing damaged machineries and equipment.
Residents whose houses are either destroyed or covered with mad and other debris courtesy of the flood water will be rebuilding their abode or discarding the mad deposited inside their homes.
The recovery process of the industry, business and the population will surely be a long, tedious, and expensive. Helping the people cope with their recovery efforts will also be a big drain in the government’s resources. Hence, a regression in the country’s economy is already a given.
Fortunately for us people of Davao City, while we are loudly complaining of still unaddressed flooding problems in some areas in both the downtown and peripheries, the city is not yet hit with floods having similar depth, massiveness in areas inundated, and strength of water current that caused houses and buildings to be seriously damaged or uprooted.
In other words, among the unlucky victims of flood we in Davao are still the luckiest.
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