BY AARON RECUENCO
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The Philippine National Police (PNP) is planning to create a task group that will identify all the accomplices in the alleged multi-million investment scam in the KAPA Community Ministry International following the arrest of its leader and founder in a raid in a secluded island in Surigao del Sur on Tuesday.
Joel Apolinario was arrested along with his 19 bodyguards, one of them was wounded during the operation in an isolated island in Sitio Dahican in Barangay Handamayan of Lingig town in Surigao del Sur, according to PNP chief Police Gen. Archie Francisco Gamboa.
Gamboa said that two other personal bodyguards of Apolinario were killed in the gunfight that erupted when policemen from the CARAGA region served the arrest warrant against the KAPA leader for a case of syndicated estafa.
“The task group will investigate to identify the other people responsible for this. They were saying that there were members of the military and the PNP but the investigation will include all those in the government,” said Gamboa.
Police have been reportedly receiving intelligence reports that the reason why Apolinario succeeded in the alleged investment scam was that he was being backed by influential people in the government.
“If they are working with some people in the government and evidence warrants that cases may be filed against them, then we do so,” said Gamboa.
Gamboa said that the task group that would look into all the cohorts of Apolinario is just one of the investigating teams that he would form to deal with the alleged investment scam being linked to the KAPA Community Ministry International.
The other task group, he said, would work on identifying all the bank deposits and assets of Apolinario and cohorts in order to give back the money that were invested by the members.
“First, we will look into the properties. What are the properties and bank accounts that were attached because the investors are surely asking where they would go to recover their investments,” said Gamboa.
Police started hunting down Apolinario on orders of President Duterte who claimed that KAPA was responsible for duping residents of the Visayas and Mindanao.
Apolinario repeatedly denied the allegation and claimed that he was just being persecuted in favor of another religious group, but he went into hiding.
During the period of manhunt, the official said they are aware that Apolinario is being guarded by heavily armed men while going to several places to avoid detection.
“Our men in the CARAGA region have been monitoring the whereabouts of the suspect and his armed men since January this year,” said Gamboa.
During the raid, police confirmed the information that Apolinario was heavily-guarded as police seized a cache of firearms from them, which include 30 units of M16 rifles, two M4 rifles, a Garand rifle, three 60 caliber Machine Gun, a 50 caliber sniper rifle, a carbine, a shotgun, two rocket-propelled grenades, five .45-caliber pistols and several bullets. (Aaron Recuenco)
Gamboa commended the troops of Caraga Police Regional Office 13 (PRO 13) for the arrest of Apolinario and his bodyguards. (with a report from Mike Crismundo)
