DAVAO regional police chief Brigadier General Aligre Lamsen Martinez was relieved from post.
In an order signed by Major General Sidney Hernia, director for personnel and records management, Lamsen’s reassignment to the Police Holding and Accounting Unit (PHAU) is effective June 14, 2024.
He will be replaced by Brigadier Nicolas Torre III from the PNP Communications and Electronics Service (CES).
Also relieved from post were Major General Ronald Lee, director of the PNP Directorate for Operations, and Colonel Edwin Portento of the Intelligence Group.
They will both be assigned also in the PHAU.
Lee will be replaced by Brigadier General Nicolas Salvador from the Directorate for Plans, which will be taken over by Brigadier General Lex Ephraim Gurat from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).
The said relief came in the light of the June 10 simultaneous operations launched by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Special Action Force (SAF) for the arrest of Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) leader Pastor Apollo Quiboloy and five others over child and sexual abuse and human trafficking.
Police visited five properties belonging to Quiboloy such as the KOJC compound in Barangay Buhangin, Davao City, the Prayer Mountain in Tamayong, the Glory Mountain in Purok 6, the QSands Baptismal Resort in Samal, and the Kitbog Compound in Malungon, Sarangani, but they failed to find and arrest him.
Supporters of Quiboloy gathered at the entrance of the KOJC compound, forming a human barricade and even resorting to using water cannons in a bid to prevent the police from getting inside.
Six KOJC members who allegedly attacked police at Glory Mountain using bolos were charged with obstruction of justice.
The KOJC, however, maintained that the PNP’s procedure in arresting the fugitive preacher was unlawful and unconstitutional.
In a statement, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who was named as the new administrator of properties belonging to KOJC, vowed to support the members and missionaries of the religious group.
He tagged the said police operations as a “day of infamy,” as he vowed to take legal actions against those who are involved.
“While I am saddened to do this given my personal, and in the past official, support for the police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, my duties as Administrator of Church Properties demand that I take legal and appropriate action. In line with this, I have ordered not only the preparation of affidavits of all members aggrieved and traumatized by the said unfortunate incident but also an inventory of church properties destroyed as a consequence,” he said.
“It is incumbent not only upon the church but also upon officers of the law to take appropriate action considering that the said trespass was beamed by social media all over the world and thus sent the wrong signal that this country has become a police state with no respect for the law and religious institutions. While the damage has been done, the opportunity is there to rectify the errors brought about by the trampling of basic rights in the conduct of this illegal raid by granting the reliefs and legal remedies provided by law,” he added. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)