RANSACKED. Photo shows a portion of the abandoned office building of the Kapa Community Ministry International Inc. in Barangay Bagacay, Alabel town, Sarangani province that was ransacked by unidentified persons on Wednesday morning (July 22, 2020). A police report said among those reportedly taken by the group were uninstalled toilet bowls, lavatory and roofing materials, office cabinets and potted ornamental plants. (PNA photo by Richelyn Gubalani)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Angry residents believed to be victims of the investment scam operated by the Kapa Community Ministry International Inc. stormed the latter's former main office in Alabel town, Sarangani province, Wednesday morning and carted away some equipment and building materials.
Maj. Roy Yasay, chief of Alabel municipal police station, said around 40 to 50 still-unidentified persons entered the abandoned Kapa compound in Barangay Bagacay and ransacked an office building.
He said the crowd, which included a number of women per witnesses, already left when they arrived at the site around 9:30 a.m.
A police report said among those reportedly taken by the group were uninstalled toilet bowls, lavatory and roofing materials, office cabinets, potted ornamental plants and pine trees.
There were also some missing lights and unspecified electrical materials but Yasay said these could have been taken prior to the incident.
“Our investigators are still establishing the identities of the looters but received reports that these were disgruntled Kapa members who were victimized by its investment scam,” he said in an interview.
An employee of a neighboring farm, who asked not to be named, said in an interview that the crowd suddenly showed up at the site past 7 a.m. and entered the Kapa compound, which was fortified by armed security guards at the height of its operations in 2018 and early 2019.
He said several women who came with the group reportedly claimed that they just wanted to take whatever was left there, even the potted pine trees, to recover from their losses.
The compound, which also has a covered court, was abandoned by Kapa and left with just two caretakers after it ceased operations in June last year following a crackdown ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Kapa or "Kabus Padatoon" (roughly translated as "enrich the poor") was flagged last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission for soliciting investments from the public through a Ponzi-like scheme in the form of donations and memberships with a monthly payout of 30 percent.
Its founder Joel Apolinario, his wife Reyna, and other close associates went into hiding after a series of raids on their offices and properties here and the neighboring areas.
The ransacking of its main office in Alabel came a day after Apolinario, who was facing four warrants of arrest for syndicated estafa, and 23 of his followers were arrested in a raid at a beachfront hideout in Lingig town, Surigao del Sur.
An encounter that reportedly ensued during the joint Army and police operation left one of Apolinario’s followers dead and another wounded. (PNA)
