A large number of the Kapa Community Ministry International gathered for a prayer rally in General Santos City in Mindanao to appeal against the government’s crackdown on its alleged investment scam.
Thousands of the group’s members from different areas in Luzon and the Visayas arrived at the Acharon Sports Complex in Calumpang starting Wednesday to join the event, said Kapa founder Joel Apolinario, who told his followers that he will discuss the allegations against him with President Duterte.
The Kapa Ministry was exposed for soliciting “donations” of P5,000 from each member, promising returns as high as 30 percent per month without the appropriate investment licenses.
Apolinario told his followers Duterte would be meeting him in Davao City because the President is scheduled to arrive in General Santos City to award certificates of land ownership at the Lagao gymnasium.
The meeting was reportedly facilitated through Senator-elect Christopher Go, the former presidential aide.
A report said that Apolinario and Go had friends in common who could have arranged the meeting with the President.
It was Apolinario who endorsed the senatorial bid of Go and Ronald dela Rosa, another trusted aide of the President.
The Securities and Exchange Commission earlier said criminal complaints will be filed against the officials of Kapa Ministry for operating a fraudulent investment scheme.
The commission already issued an advisory against Kapa’s activities in March 2017 and a cease-and-desist order in February 2019.
The Court of Appeals earlier ordered the freezing of several bank accounts and other assets linked to Kapa upon the petition of the SEC and the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
Despite the crackdown, some members denied their investment scheme was a scam.
The National Bureau of Investigation on Thursday said it will file criminal complaints against Kapa Community Ministry International next week.
NBI National Capital Region Regional Director Cesar Bacani said the timeline for the filing of the cases was decided after the agency conducted last Monday a nationwide raid of the group’s offices.
“We will definitely file next week the corresponding cases arising from the search warrants we served last Monday,” Bacani said.
During the raids, NBI operatives were able to seize various documents, records, books, and equipment which will be used in the filing of the cases.
The NBI official said the respondents in the complaints will include those named in its registration, the incorporators, the board of directors, officers, and other persons who were not named but actively participated in the operation.
NBI spokesman Deputy Director Ferdinand Lavin confirmed that the NBI is ready to file complaints for violations of the Securities Regulation Act against Kapa officers but can’t file swindling or estafa cases yet because there’s no damage so far.
Lavin said the raids were conducted in response to the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to shut down Kapa.
“We should be thankful we have a very smart President. This is a pre-emptive move,” Lavin said.
“Usually, the NBI would only come into the picture as a reactionary move,” he said, noting that there were similar investment scams in the past, but the NBI would only act on them once the victims filed complaints.
Lavin said that while no Kapa’s members have filed complaints against it, the NBI acted based on the complaint of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused Kapa of having no license and authority to receive investments in violation of the Securities Corporation Code of the Philippines.
Under Kapa’s scheme, members are asked a minimum of P5,000 in donations from which they can earn a monthly interest or “blessing” of 30 percent.
However, Bacani said this will eventually blow up in the faces of the members since there is a daily P100-million payout for the interest and no source of earnings for the investments given by its around 5 million members.
He said Kapa’s investments were not enough to generate income to pay off the interest of their investors or donors.
READ: SEC: P50 billion flowed into Kapa
READ: ‘Kapa in large-scale estafa’
