By Froilan Gallardo, Special Correspondent .
POLICE operatives arrested Kapa-Community Ministry International founder and president Joel Apolinario after a brief gunbattle that left one of his followers dead and another injured in Lingig town, Surigao del Sur Tuesday morning.
PNP Caraga spokesperson Maj. Renel Serrano said 23 followers of Apolinario were also arrested during the raid.
Serrano said a team of police and Army operatives raided the hideout of Apolinario in a resort in Barangay Handayaman in Lingig town at 7:30 am Tuesday.
He said a brief gun battle ensued between resulting in the death of one of the followers of Apolinario.
Another follower identified as Melecio Siano was wounded in the brief exchange of gunfire.
Serrano said when police searched the hideout, they found a cache of high-powered firearms consisting of 30 units of M16 rifles; 2 M4 assault rifles, 1 Garand rifle, three M60 machineguns, and 1 Caliber 50 Barret sniper rifle.
The police raiders also reportedly seized three caliber .22 rifles, an M1 carbine rifle, a shotgun, two rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, five caliber .45 pistols, a rocket propelled grenade and several hundred rounds of ammunition.
Serreno said Apolinario was brought to the PNP regional office in Camp Col. Rafael Rodriguez in Butuan City after he was arrested.
He said the law enforcement operation was done on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued from Regional Trial Court branch 21 Judge Gil Bollozos in Cagayan de Oro for syndicated estafa.
The Regional Trial Court branch 21 in Cagayan de Oro issued a warrant of arrest for Apolinario and eight of his associates for syndicated estafa.
The Department of Justice accused Apolinario, a former DJ and technician at a radio station in Bislig, Surigao del Sur, and his associates of “willfully, unlawfully and criminally” engaging in the sale or distribution of securities in the Philippines without a registration filed and approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The SEC who conducted its own investigation, said Apolinario and his associates employed a Ponzi scheme, an investment scam that offers impossible high returns and pay investors using the money contributed by later investors.
“The scale of the investment scam could easily run to hundreds of millions of pesos,” the SEC investigation said.
The SEC said the suspects did this by offering the public 30-percent monthly return of their investments.
The securities commission said Kapa’s investment scam became successful when they engaged the public on Facebook, Youtube and other social media platforms.
Aside from the case in Cagayan de Oro, the Department of Justice also filed criminal cases against the suspects in Bislig, Surigao del Sur; Quezon City and Antipolo, Rizal.
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