Kapa omen against Duterte

Jude Josue Sabio .

BY its name alone, Kapa Community Ministry International sounds similar with the Greater Ministries International.  Both of them have many things in common other than their name. 

First, while Kapa claims to be a religious group based in Alabel, Sarangani, the Greater Ministries International was a religious group based in Tampa, Florida in the ’90s.

Second, while Kapa has been offering a monthly return of 30 percent, Greater Ministries International ran a “money-doubling” scheme, offering to double the “gift” of money.  

Third, while Kapa speaks of “donation,” Greater Ministries International called it a “gift.” 

Fourth, while Kapa claims certain businesses, including mining and another that earns P10 billion annually, Greater Ministries International claimed to be engaged in gold mining in Liberia. 

Fourth, while Kapa is led by Pastor Joel Apolinario who, as a modern day “Moses,” would lead the poor to become rich, Greater Ministries International was led by Gerald Payne who awoke one night and received God’s “money-doubling” scheme. 

Fifth, while Kapa was raided and its founder Joel Apolinario is being threatened with imprisonment,  Greater Ministries International was also raided in years ago and its leader Gerald Payne was sentenced to prison for 27 years. 

However, unlike in the case now of Kapa, the President of the United States never directly intervened against Greater Ministries International. The action, including the investigation, was done only by government  officials. 

A survey of other Ponzi schemes, notably those of Charles Ponzi in 1920 and Bernie Madoff in the past decade or so, shows that the discovery and investigation was a collaborative effort by media and government officials, but did not directly involve the US President.   This is in stark contrast to what has been happening with Kapa where President Duterte himself directly intervened by first giving an interview with Pastor Quiboloy. He labelled Kapa as a syndicated estafa and directly ordered its closure which spawned the police raids.

In a recent public speech under the seal of the President in General Santos City, he threatened Pastor Apolinario with imprisonment for the crime of syndicated estafa.

And yet, not long ago or just last year, President Duterte said in media that Kapa is good because it is helping people, especially the poor. His position was later echoed by Malacanang. He also said that if you want to get rich, you just go to Sarangani or Tagum, in reference obviously to Kapa. President Duterte’s position then in favor of Kapa is consistent with the undeniable fact that Kapa has been helping people, as evidenced by countless reports of poor people receiving huge “blessings” from Kapa. 

The massive show of force in the recent Kapa prayer rallies can attest to these “blessings.” At the apex of the people’s boundless joy, President Duterte turned against the people, just like what Bikoy did when he turned against his handlers. 

President Duterte could have opted to allow his regulatory agencies to do the dirty work which could have achieved the self-same goals even without his direct personal intervention. 

Based on media reports, the SEC in fact had already begun taking action against Kapa way back in 2017 culminating in the revocation of Kapa’s registration in April this year. The action of the law enforcement agencies especially the raids on Kapa offices could have been done even without any order coming from President Duterte. 

If someone says that Robin Hood is good because he is giving stolen money to the poor, such person is supportive of Robin Hood’s robbing of people. If someone says that a killer is good because he is killing bad people like drug addicts, he is supportive of murder. In the case of President Duterte, even if he now says that Kapa is a continuing fraud, the fact is that there was a time when he expressed his support to Kapa due to Kapa’s “blessings” for the people, which essentially contradicts his subsequent order to raid and close Kapa.      

The unorthodox and unprecedented intervention of President Duterte, using the mighty authority and prestige of his high office, lends to serious doubts about his underlying motivation. It is very unusual, indeed, for a President like Duterte to make a completely unnecessary intervention, thereby incurring the perpetual ire of the masses and running the certain risk of massive loss of political support from the masses especially in Mindanao who constitute the backbone of his political base. 

Since the intervention is in the first place completely unnecessary, there must have been a very compelling reason for him to have assumed a very special interest against Kapa which could still unravel in this developing story. 

The unnecessary intervention is premature. While he is using the pomp and immense prestige of his presidential pulpit to threaten Pastor Apolinario with a non-bailable offense of syndicated offense, it must embarrass him to realize that no Kapa member has complained of any damage. 

In fact, all Kapa members are happy with their “blessings.” Under the law, damage or defraudation is an essential ingredient of estafa. There being no damage to Kapa members, as admitted by the NBI, then there is no estafa, much less syndicated estafa.    

It appears that this premature intervention of President Duterte has substantially weakened the threatened criminal case against Pastor Apolinario because it precluded an essential ingredient of the offense.  It is like charging a person with physical injuries when the victim has not sustained any injury.    

Second, ironically, it is premature and unnecessary intervention that is instead causing damage to the people who are now prevented from receiving their “blessings.”

Since President Duterte is tagging Kapa as a continuing fraud, his unnecessary intervention has prevented such fraud from unravelling by itself.  

As I personally experienced in Butuan City in December 2013 up to June 2014, in the case of imaginary treasures like gold bars, the people running the fraudulent scheme create a scenario of being prevented from delivering the gold bars due to the presence of armed men. My sad personal experience in Butuan City has given rise to an estafa case against Rolly Gabayan and Imelda Lompon of Manolo Fortich. This estafa case is presently pending in a Butuan court.

In the case of Kapa, President Duterte wittingly or unwittingly supplied such scenario by his unnecessary intervention, under which Pastor Apolinario can now claim that he is being prevented by President Duterte from further dispensing with “blessings.”  This has created a convenient  pretext to deny the existence of fraud due to force majeure. 

Stated otherwise, President Duterte has preempted Pastor Apolinario from further dispensing “blessings”  in whatever way he can. Even if Kapa can be likened to a Ponzi scheme, it is still premature to say that Kapa is really in fact a fraud, because no Kapa member has yet complained of any damage.   Much more, Kapa is still being able to dispense with the “blessings.” 

Who knows if Pastor Apolinario may have a feasible way to finance the “blessings,” as it has been rumored that he has discovered a bunker full of gold bars which can afford him to pay the “blessings”?  Even then, the point remains that it has not yet become ripe to fully and exactly known as a fact that Kapa is a fraud. 

What is clear, rather, is that due to President Duterte’s premature and completely unnecessary intervention, the people are effectively prevented from receiving their rightful “blessings,” thereby giving rise to the popular sentiment that Pastor Apolinario has emerged, in biblical terms, as a real Moses for the poverty-stricken masses, instead of being discredited as a con man. By medieval standards, Pastor Apolinario has emerged as a modern-day Robin Hood.  

In contrast, by what he has prematurely done at the behest of Pastor Quiboloy, President Duterte has acted like a foremost villain who prevented the masses from receiving their “blessings.” 

The consequences of what President Duterte did are terrifying. In Saranggani alone, it is reported that a man killed his wife due to President Duterte’s action.  There are reports of mass psychiatric depression. The full extent of the fallout is still to be known, but immediately, it is already evident that President Duterte has antagonized his mass support which will surely undermine him, his daughter Sara and political allies in the future, just like what the Yolanda fund mess has done to the past LP administration. 

Even if Kapa is discredited as a continuing fraud by President Duterte himself, the now infamous “bitayin na yan si Duterte” uttered by a Kapa member in Sarangani reflects the growing popular sentiment among the teeming masses.  

It is a bad omen of turbulence to come for President Duterte as retribution for his killing of the last vestige of hope in the people’s breast. The downtrodden will remember in perpetuity that President Duterte prematurely extinguished the last remnant of hope for their deliverance from slavery under poverty to the joyful abundance under Kapa’s “blessings.” 

This powerful, eternal  flame will remain as a beacon of hope in the face of the arrogant and abusive might of President Duterte, whatever he prematurely thinks about Kapa.  Reverberating to the future, this flame of hope will kindle the path for the masses when President Duterte will be forced in wanton terror to acknowledge what he has done because the masses will exact vengeance.