KOJC member gets jail term for leading standoff during police hunt for Quiboloy

Police officers enter the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound in Davao City to serve warrants of arrest against fugitive evangelist Apollo Quiboloy and his co-accused early morning Saturday, 24 August 2024. MindaNews photo

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 01 May) – For ordering other members to resist authorities serving arrest warrants on Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy and his co-accused for sex trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, a follower of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) was sentenced by the Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) Branch 39 of Quezon City to four months in prison.

The KOJC members’ action led to a violent dispersal after the group tried to prevent police from entering their compound in Davao City where Quiboloy was arrested after an operation that lasted from August 24 until September 8, 2024.

In a seven-page decision dated April 23, 2026, Presiding Judge Juvenal N. Bella found Eduardo Sapar Corda guilty of violating Section 13(a) of Batas Pambansa Bilang 880, otherwise known as the Public Assembly Act of 1985.

A copy of the decision was shared on social media by former Philippine National Police chief and now Metropolitan Manila Development Authority general manager Nicolas Torres, who led the operation to arrest Quiboloy.

The decision said the essential elements of the crime under BP 880 include holding a public assembly; the person charged is a leader or organizer of said assembly; the assembly was held without first securing a written permit from the proper office, or was held in a place other than that authorized in the permit.

Corda was charged before the Office of the City Prosecutor in Davao City for directing the crowd with a megaphone to ignore an order to disperse. The criminal complaint said he was also heard shouting provocatively, “Justice for Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy and the KOJC.”

“In a mass action, the person wielding the megaphone to coordinate the group’s movements exercises functional leadership. Accordingly, as the law seeks to regulate those who wield actual influence over the conduct of the assembly, the Accused is properly identified as a leader for purposes of establishing liability,” the court stated.

Corda’s case was later transferred from the Municipal Trial Court in Cities in Davao City to the MTC in Quezon City.

On August 26, a standoff erupted after police ordered the KOJC members to disperse and allow them to search for Quiboloy inside the 30-hectare compound.

During the assembly, supporters blocked the Philippine–Japan Friendship Highway using cranes, several motor vehicles, and heavy equipment, and hurled plastic chairs, stones, wastewater, and food scraps at authorities, the court said.

“The Court notes that while the right to peaceably assemble is a ‘preferred freedom,’ the Supreme Court clarified in Bayan vs Ermita that the State may validly impose regulations to prevent significant public inconvenience,” it said.

It also found that KOJC had been granted a special mayor’s permit but noted that “its authorization was explicitly restricted to a Prayer Rally and Candle Lighting activity, with the address of the event limited strictly to the KOJC Compound.”

It said that despite the restriction, the assembly shifted to the highway.

“By barricading a national thoroughfare with heavy equipment, the participants exceeded the spatial authority granted. In this regard, a permit is not a license to occupy any public space at will. It is limited by the conditions and location specified therein,” it added. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)