DAVAO, Philippines – Violence erupted Sunday night, August 25, as tensions escalated during a street protest against ongoing police operations to capture fugitive doomsday preacher Apollo Quiboloy at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) property, leaving a still undetermined number of people, including six police officers, injured.
A tear gas canister burst Sunday during the protest, sending Quiboloy’s followers and supporters scrambling in all directions.
Protesters accused the police of using tear gas to disperse the crowd, an allegation that Davao police spokesperson Major Catherine dela Rey has neither confirmed nor denied.
Dela Rey claimed that protesters became unruly and violent, attacking police officers in the area around 10 pm Sunday. Several tires were burned in the middle of the road.
Police reported that at least six officers were injured, and four of them had to be taken to a hospital.
Hundreds of protesters occupied a section of the Carlos P. Garcia Highway outside the KOJC property in Barangay Buhangin, disrupting traffic in the area and near the Francisco Bangoy International Airport.
Protesters said they would not leave until police vacated the KOJC compound, where the search for Quiboloy and four other fugitives was ongoing. Quiboloy’s followers were still massed in the area as of this posting.
Quiboloy, who styles himself as the “appointed son of God,” and four of his followers are wanted for child abuse and trafficking cases. The preacher has also been charged with sexual abuse of a minor.
The Davao regional police denied imposing a “lockdown” in some areas to prevent people from joining the KOJC rally and accused the Quiboloy group’s media arm, Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI), of spreading false information.
In a statement, the Philippine National Police-Davao Region said it “never implemented any lockdown along the national highway or planned to do so.”
“It was the members of the KOJC who intentionally blocked the national highway in front of the KOJC compound,” the statement added.
The PNP said the protesters had secured a permit from the city government to hold a prayer vigil at the KOJC compound but noted that “the venue where they conducted the rally is not in accordance with the permit they secured.”
“Despite this, the PNP employed maximum tolerance, just as the PNP has not reacted to all of SMNI’s attacks on the different police visibility activities it has conducted over the past weeks or months… The PNP is performing its job, and we pray that those who obstruct us from doing the same will grant us a chance to finish our tasks more quickly by not hampering the police operations that we are carrying out,” the PNP-Davao statement read.
Davao-based broadcaster DXDC-RMN reported that the section of the highway in front of the KOJC property remained impassable as of 8:30 am on Monday, August 26, forcing motorists to look for alternate routes. Some nearby areas that had been barricaded by protesters were opened to allow traffic to flow to the airport.
DXDC said that motorists heading to the airport from Panacan and the northern areas need to detour through Indangan and Cabantian, exiting at Buhangin, Esperanza.
It reported that airport operations continued as normal, with no traffic congestion in the area at that time. – Rappler.com
