DESTROYING HIS OWN PEOPLE

30 August 2024

From Jun Avelino 

On Pastor Quiboloy and his constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty

The ruckus in Davao city as initiated by the administration’s attack dog, General Torre, has now become a monumental example of how a President of the country destroys his own people, mock the court orders, rule by deception in an attempt to intimidate and even annihilate his political nemesis in wanton disregard of the constitutionally guaranteed bill of rights of every citizen of which the President has sworn to protect and uphold. 

The public should know that at this point in time, Pastor Quiboloy is just accused of committing a crime. He is not yet guilty as maliciously portrayed by this administration. When the Pasig Court issued a warrant for his arrest, it does not mean the court has already found him guilty. The court merely wants to acquire jurisdiction over his person and that is why in serving the warrant of arrest, the arresting officers are mandated by law to read the accused of his Miranda rights which includes his right to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

In our country today, there are thousands of people who have pending arrest warrants and in hiding and Pastor Quiboloy is only one of them. Obviously, becoming a fugitive is a matter of choice resorted to by every accused and their reason for evading arrest vary depending on the nature and circumstances of the cases filed against them.

In the case of Pastor Quiboloy, before becoming a fugitive, he already informed the public of the clear and present danger of him being placed under police custody. Either he will be neutralized upon his arrest or he will be turned over to the US government through extradition process so he can be prosecuted in foreign soil where he is helpless and for which he strongly abhors. And everyone who is familiar on his case believes that the PACQ’s fears have legitimate basis. For one, the blueprint of US government’s involvement in this turmoil is everywhere. And the fact that the government has put a Php 10 Million bounty on his head only confirms this government’s maniacal obsession on his immediate demise.

Let it be on record, as PACQ clearly manifested early on, that he does not wish to disrespect our courts. He just cannot, in conscience, entrust his life to the arresting officers whom he believes are under instruction to eliminate him or allows the government to railroad the extradition process to please Uncle Sam with whom this government is heavily indebted and hence, its willingness to slurp every poop that comes off its ass – never mind the rights of our citizens. Given the foregoing, PACQ is left with no choice but to fight the case while into hiding and I cited the Lacson case in 2010 who did the same until his vindication.

Lacson, while being a Senator, was charged in 2010 with Double Murder Case for the death of Dacer and Corbito 2000 after the DOJ secured an affidavit from Mancao pointing Lacson as the mastermind to the murder. Sensing that his life was in danger due to his strong belief that the case was politically motivated and given his connections as a former Chief PNP, he was convinced that he will be silenced if he allowed himself to be placed under custody. So, when the warrant for his arrest was issued, he was nowhere to be found.

While in hiding, his lawyers challenged the issuance of the WOA before the court that issued it and filed necessary pleadings in relation to the murder case against him until it reached the Court of Appeals that eventually nullified the WOA and dismissed the murder case against him - a decision that was affirmed by the Supreme Court with finality. He then resurfaced and resumed his work as a Senator. He ran again for the Senate and won and even ran for the Presidency in 2022.  

When asked during the Presidential campaign about his being a fugitive in 2010, Lacson claimed that he did not violate any laws when he went into hiding. He cited a Supreme Court ruling that allows him to continue fighting over his case while being a fugitive – and he won. There was no uproar from our legal minds, the public, the media, the DOJ and even the PNP when Lacson said so as this might encourage would be fugitives. They just accepted it with open arms and legs. So, if Lacson managed to navigate his way of the legal trouble while being a fugitive, there is no reason why PACQ can not resort to the same strategy without violating any law!

Just to be clear. We are not questioning the action of the PNP in serving the WOA on PACQ. Catch him if you can. But what we are questioning here is the enormous amount of force employed to locate and hunt him.

When the government served the WOA for General Bantag who remains in hiding until now and is believed to be armed, how much force the government used in locating him? Maybe 20? 30?

When the government tried to serve the WOA against Senator Honasan who was also a fugitive in 2003 for his role in the July 27 coup attempt, how many police officers the government sent to hunt him down? Maybe 20 or 50 police offers until he was caught.

When the government served the WOA to the Teves brothers of Oriental Mindoro who are known to have private armies and are therefore armed and dangerous, the PNP sent a few hundreds to neutralize the group and arrested Henry while Congressman Teves remains a fugitive abroad.

When the government served the WOA to terrorists in Mamasapano, the PNP sent maybe a few hundreds with only 3 platoons entered the area while the rest served as back up because the group is armed and ready to die fighting. The government failed to arrest the targets of the WOA while they managed to kill Marwan and voila, the USD 5M bounty on his head set by the US government is gone and only God knows who received it at the expense of 44 SAF who were martyred in the process.

And now, the PNP, with its full might of 3,000 personnel, mostly in full battle gear, have entered and occupied the premises of KOJC, a place of worship and studies by our youth, and right at the heart of the City of Davao, to arrest an unarmed civilian, a religious pastor who is not even a convict, and whose only weapon is his faith to God! And General Torre claimed that their acts are not excessive! 

They set up barricades which barred the KOJC members from exercising their religious freedom and to pray in their Cathedral and prevented the students from attending their classes. And yet, General Torre claimed that they have not violated any civilian rights and even insisted that they can stay as long as they want and further claimed that their acts are in accordance with the law notwithstanding the fact that KOJC compound is private property owned by its members.

What is sickening here is when you have a DILG Secretary (Abalos) who wants to wash his hands on what General Torre did, claiming that what happened in Davao is purely police operations and he has nothing to do with it. And the preposterously disgusting of all is when you have a President who lied through his teeth claiming that not a single police officer is armed when the PNP entered the KOJC premises and that they never used teargas and they are there to maintain peace and order, in fact. Of course, the facts on the ground point to the contrary and the President is therefore obviously lying. And hearing him blabber those lies should alarm the public on his capacity to make wise judgments and decisions in times of crisis given his tendency to accept hook line and sinker what is being fed on him by his lieutenants regardless of whether or not these are factual information.

Equally troubling is the pronouncement of our Secretary of Justice (Boying Remulla) who claimed that they will not follow the Writ of Amparo issued by the Davao court as their actions are covered by the WOA issued by the Manila Court. So, we have a Secretary of Justice who promotes discrimination against courts in the Provinces in favor of those based in Manila. What a shame, and indeed, Remulla is a disgrace to his own Department!

In the case of mainstream media, it has failed to perform its duty to report to the public the truthful facts of what happened in the KOJC compound. Instead of reporting the abuses committed by the Police officers in bastardizing the KOJC Cathedral, the use of teargas, physical intimidation of the members, they feasted on reporting the 2 alleged victims by KOJC inside the compound and the call by the government and the CHR enjoining KOJC members to respect the law, an act of tweaking the facts to misinform the public of what is happening in the ground.

Of course, the only reason we can think of why the Marcos administration is mobilizing the entire machinery of the government in Mindanao to hunt down Quiboloy is because of his association with the Dutertes. If you recall, these cases faced by PACQ now were dismissed by the courts in Davao. But when the Dutertes started attacking the administration, Remulla instructed his lieutenants to do everything they can to revive the case and have them filed in Pasig court. Immediately thereafter, the WOA was issued. And you don’t call it a railroaded process?

All told, we can fairly say that the crisis in Davao goes beyond the arrest PACQ. It is a carefully hatched plan backed up by well-oiled machinery and mainstream media included and the target is the annihilation of the Dutertes from politics. By eliminating PACQ in the equation, the KOJC will be destroyed which is one of the sources of major support of the Dutertes. 

But the more important concern that should keep the people of Davao and even Mindanao for that matter to be vigilant is the government’s defiance to the Writ of amparo issued by the court and the use of fully armed thousands of personnel to be kept inside and outside the KOJC compound. 

I believed that the ultimate plan, given the thousands of armed forces employed, was to place Davao City under Martial Law had Mayor Baste, FPRRD, Pulong and VP Sara decided to fight the forces of General Torre with the people backing them up. It is now becoming clear that the WOA was just a camouflage to hide their real plan – ignite an attack from the Dutertes and because of chaos and disorder, the entire city will be placed under Martial law and then charge the Dutertes of various crimes depending on their level of participation. They can then appoint officials to run the city government and voila, the threat to their ambition to perpetuate into power is gone.

But the way things are going, the Duterte’s refused to be baited and decided to resort to legal remedies in fighting General Torre and his principal, PBBM. These last few days, the infamous General seemed to have lost the battle despite the overkill, the deception and the abusive actions he employed hoping for violence to take place so they can proceed with their plan to put the entire city under their control. It is clear now that the Duterte’s and Davaoenos have frustrated their demonic plans big time.

Folks, we owe the relative peace, security, progress and the many developments in our city to our leaders, particularly the Dutertes and ourselves. As the fruits of our labor are being threatened nowadays, ironically, by our government leaders, the call for unity is expedient. While we continue to fight this state sanctioned oppression through rallies and legal battles, we should not allow ourselves to be lured into the trap laid to us by our oppressors. Let us allow reason to defeat oppression and join the KOJC members in praying the torture that they have been through to finally end.

While we condemn General Torre and General Marbil, we continue to respect the PNP as an institution as these two generals do not embody the ideals of the PNP. They are the monumental models of what a police officer should not be.

While we despise Secretary Abalos for being part of this sinister plot, let us continue to have a high regard to the DILG as there remains well-meaning officials in the Department who are unwilling to succumb to political pressures. Abalos, with his plan of running for the Senate next year, will surely savor the taste of the people of Mindanao’s hatred for what he has done.

When we mock Boying Remulla for reneging on his duty to uphold justice, let us continue to respect the DOJ as an institution as there are decent prosecutors and officials of the Department who surely despised their Secretary for his abusive actions.

Lastly, as we express our hatred and disappointment to PBBM being the main culprit in everything that happened in Davao and KOJC in particular, let us continue to have faith in our government. His actions and involvement on the chaos in our city speak volume of his tendency to lie and deceive the Filipino people for his political amelioration. The demonic legacy left by his father which put our country under the dark era of dictatorship for over 2 decades should guide us in our battle to protect and defend the democratic atmosphere we have been enjoying as a country since Marcos Sr. was deposed. There is no way we can allow his son to event think and attempt to bring this country back to that dreaded era of our country’s history. He has started doing it in Davao, the turf of his perceived opponents and am sure, the rest of the country is next. Never again! –- Jun Avelino

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