THE director of the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 has issued a warning to police personnel who want to invest in the Kapa- Community Ministry International Inc., an independent religious corporation.
Not only will Police Brigadier General Debold Sinas relieve them, he will also take away their service firearms.
Sinas received information that the number of people who have invested in Kapa has reached 10,000 in its three weeks of operation here in Cebu alone.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Kapa is collecting investments from the public in the guise of a “donation” with a promise of a “30 percent return per month until forever.”
Most of Kapa’s targets are teachers, police and members of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) 7 and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) 7. Some have reportedly invested a lot of money in the entity.
“I’ve coordinated with the BJMP 7 and the BFP 7 to check their personnel after we noticed that their personnel were the first ones to join Kapa. I’m also having police personnel monitored. If we catch anyone investing in Kapa, he or she will be automatically relieved and lose his or her service firearm,” Sinas said in Cebuano.
Sinas said the money that Kapa collects in Central Visayas is used to pay off its investors in Mindanao.
“Kapa has special directives. That’s why it’s considered to be the most aggressive of pyramiding schemes. Its operations in Mindanao are big-time. If it sets up shop in Region 7 (Central Visayas), they will take the money they have collected here to pay clients there,” Sinas said in Cebuano.
Last Saturday, June 1, 2019, the PRO 7 received information that Kapa’s office in Sitio Hika, Barangay Poblacion in the northern town of Compostela, Cebu was guarded by two armed men from a security agency.
When members of the Civil Security Unit arrived at the scene, they discovered that the guards, who were later identified as Dextyer Tagono Cuyos, 24, of San Jose, Catmon, and Robert Gabayan Padayogdog, 31, of Sitio Polo, Barangay Baliwagan, Balamban, didn’t have a license for their shotgun and 9mm pistol. Because of this, the firearms were confiscated and the two men were taken into custody for violating the Commission on Elections gun ban.
The PRO 7 has been coordinating with the SEC regarding the latter’s issuance of a cease and desist order against Kapa.
Sinas said they want to know when they can raid the establishment.
The police official said when his men went to the Kapa office in Compostela, they were accosted by investors who insisted that the scheme was legal.
One of the investors is 49-year-old Rhandy (not his real name), a resident of Lapu-Lapu City, who insists that everything about Kapa is aboveboard.
He said Kapa is giving the poor a chance to earn a lot of money.
What Kapa is offering, he said, is not a chance to invest but a chance to donate to the ministry’s founder and earn a 30 percent monthly return on the donation.
Rhandy, who has already “donated” P100,000, said Kapa gave him a choice to get his interest, or “love gift,” monthly, but he decided to wait for the end of one year to receive P1.3 million.
“I have friends in Davao City who donated P100,000 each. They were given an SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) that would be deducted from their monthly (payout),” Rhandy said in Cebuano.
He admitted that putting money in Kapa was a risk since the application form referred to the money as a donation. He said it was a wager he was willing to make since he is sure Kapa will be able to pay out the promised P1.3 million.
Rhandy was not surprised that Kapa had many detractors.
“The people who are angry at Kapa are its rivals. Since its inception, there have been no complaints. Only those who have not joined are making noise. We who have donated money have no problems with Kapa,” he said in Cebuano.
Since Kapa opened its doors in Cebu last April, many people have lined up outside its doors hoping to become members because they want to rise out of poverty.
Last Feb. 14, SEC ordered Kapa to stop soliciting investments from the public without a license and in a manner resembling a Ponzi scheme.
The Commission also barred it from promoting its investment scheme through the internet and to remove promotional presentations online.
Kapa was also ordered not to dispose of its remaining properties and other assets.
According to Section 8 of Republic Act 8799, or The Securities Regulation Code, “securities shall not be sold or offered for sale or distribution within the Philippines without a registration statement duly filed with and approved by the Commission.”
Kapa also operates as Kabus Padatuon (Enrich the Poor), Kapa-Co Convenience Store and General Merchandise and Kapa Worldwide Ministry, among others.
Although Kapa is a registered corporation, the Commission said its certificate of incorporation explicitly stated that it is not authorized to undertake business activities requiring a secondary license such as acting as broker or dealer in securities, investment house and close-end or open-end investment company.
On April 3, the SEC revoked the Certificate of Corporate Registration of Kapa-Community Ministry International Inc., saying that soliciting investments from its members was neither essential nor necessary to carry out Kapa’s purpose as a religious organization; therefore, its investment-taking activities in the guise of donations constituted a “serious misrepresentation” on what it can do “to the damage and prejudice of the investing public.”
In a video uploaded on Youtube last May 7, Kapa president and co-founder Joel Apolinario said their ministry only aims to help the less fortunate get out of poverty.
Apolinario also said in the video that only the Court has the right to make them stop their activities, and as long as they hear nothing from them, he believed that they were on the right track.
On Monday, June 3, Cebu Provincial Schools Division Superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud said the Department of Education (DepEd) in Cebu Province will issue a warning to its personnel not to invest in Kapa.
So far, the DepEd in Cebu has not received reports of teachers who have invested in Kapa, she said in a text message to SunStar Cebu. (From AYB of SuperBalita Cebu, PJB, JJL)