This Senate PRIB handout photo shows Sen. Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa presiding over a hearing in Davao City on Sept.6, 2024 into the Philippine National Police operation at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound to find fugitive pastor Apollo Quiboloy. Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau handout

DAVAO CITY — The Philippine National Police will continue operations at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound in Davao City after an eight-hour Senate hearing that looked into alleged abuses in the implementation of an arrest warrant for KOJC leader Apollo Quiboloy and his co-accused in abuse and trafficking cases.

The hearing was led by Sens. Ronald Dela Rosa, Christopher “Bong” Go and Robin Padilla of the Rodrigo Duterte-led Partido Demokratiko Pilipino.

"We will restrategize,” regional police chief Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III said after the hearing on Friday. 

“Actually, I’m energized. ‘Yang mga lahat ng pinalalampas namin na obstruction of justice, aaksyunan na namin,” he said, adding the police will do “whatever it takes” to find and arrest Quiboloy, who has remained in hiding, citing fears he would be sent to the US to face similar cases there.

(We will take action on the instances of obstruction of justice that we let slide)

The search for Quiboloy has drawn a line between the Marcos and Duterte factions of the former UniTeam administration alliance, with Vice President Sara Duterte apologizing to Quiboloy’s followers for seeking their support for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the 2022 elections.

READ: Respect for human rights must be priority in search for fugitive Quiboloy — advocate

KOJC: PNP CONDUCTING ‘ILLEGAL’ OPERATION

KOCJ has maintained that the police operations at its compound are illegal as they only presented an arrest warrant, not a search warrant.

Torre said that the operations are legitimate as they have a reasonable belief that Quiboloy is hiding in the compound.

KOJC counsel Israelito Torreon told senators of alleged violations by the PNP, including the alleged use of tear gas on the first day of the search, although Torre said that police would have brought gas masks if they were going to use tear gas.

KOJC also criticized the PNP for using a long-range acoustic device — a specialized loudspeaker sometimes called a sound cannon and the use of which activists have been calling out since the Duterte administration —  during the religious group’s services.

During the hearing, parties also traded blame for the death of a Quiboloy follower who had a heart attack during the first day of the search, with KOJC saying police had blocked an ambulance to bring him to the hospital. 

But the PNP said KOJC members had kept a police ambulance from entering the compound.

KOJC also criticized the police for allowing non-police personnel, including a supposed informant, to wear police attire during the search, a measure that Torre said was meant “to ease their entry” into the compound.

Dela Rosa said he was dismayed at video of a police officer allegedly using pepper spray on a female KOJC official while Quiboloy’s followers said the former KOJC member the police were using as an informant was giving wrong or outdated information.

"So this committee believes na yung kanilang informant ay palpak, hindi nila nakuha si Pastor Quiboloy," Dela Rosa said.

(This committee believes the police informant gave wrong information, so they didn’t find Pastor Quiboloy)

PNP: QUIBOLOY FOLLOWERS RESISTING POLICE OPERATION, FRISKING COPS

The PNP meanwhile presented documented incidents of Quiboloy’s followers cursing at police officers, and throwing rocks and dirty water at them.

Torre said followers also used fire extinguishers against police personnel and even frisked some PNP officers entering the compound.

"Hindi totoo, sir, na ang pulis ang nang-aapi diyan. Tingnan niyo naman, law enforcers ang fini-frisk. And look at their people, all of them wear masks. Galit pa sa amin pag pinapatanggal ng mask," Torre said in comments to the former chief of the Philippine National Police and of the Davao City Police Office before that.

(It is not true, sir, that the police are the abusive ones here. Look at how law enforcers are being frisked. And they are all wearing masks but want our people to unmask)

Torre said the PNP is using modern technology to look for Quibioloy and that their equipment have detected what it believes is human movement underground.

"Several retests were done, and we have another confirmatory evidence that I can give in an executive session," Torre said. He said a search and rescue dog had also given indications of a person underground.

Dela Rosa and KOJC lawyer Torreon also called out the police for presenting a room in Quiboloy's Bible School that is supposedly connected to the pastor's private quarters. 

"The way you deliver your statement is trying to impute malice," the senator said.

"The presentation of the general is being used really not to present facts of what happened but to present his view of Pastor Quiboloy in order to malign him," Torreon said.

Torre said, however, explained that "what I am saying, sir, is that the evidence we see is supporting the warrant of arrest for sex with a child."

RELATED VIDEO