Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra ordered the authorities to prevent KAPA-Community Ministry founder Joel Apolinario from escaping the country following the order of President Rodrigo Duterte to close down the said religious group that offers a return of investment from the donations of their fanatics.
In a statement, Guevarra said that the authorities are already doing their job to trace Apolinario’s whereabouts who’s known for allegedly scamming a total of P50-B from his so-called followers.
“Ongoing operations now. Expect arrests to be made soon,” Guevarra said in his statement.
Yesterday, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided the house of Apolinario and its two offices in Sarangani province.
The authorities confiscated documents and other materials used by KAPA to ask investments to other people.
Meanwhile, Atty. Riolen Gillesania, lawyer of Apolinario insisted that the raid was illegal, explaining that KAPA is a religious group and the government cannot meddle with their operation.
“This is an attack by the state against a religious group,” Gillesania said.
Apolinario has already been charged with syndicated estafa for luring people to invest to his “church”.
While KAPA is a registered religious group, it still got a flag from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for soliciting investments with unrealistic interest rate.
President Duterte ordered KAPA to be close down after Kingdom of Jesus Christ founder Apollo Quiboloy told the chief executive about the existence of the said religious group.
To the CIDG, the police, the special investigating teams including NBI, that is pyramiding. That is why you shut them down and haul them (to courts) upon my orders,” Duterte said
“Imagine, your P100,000 earns P30,000 a month? Even our Bangko Sentral can only give 3%, and that’s annual. I have been telling the Filipino people that if what is being promised to you is something like heaven it’s fraud,” he added.