Manila, Philippines - The Jesus Christ Followers (JCF) management claimed anew that the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office was responsible for the bloody raid in their school premises early this year.
During a press conference, JCF administrator Emilia Tiongco explained the school's side of the events that eventually led to their arrest and alleged ransacking of the school building.
City Police Director Honorio Cervantes told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro in a recent interview they have a strong case against the JCF.
She said they are angry at the city police specifically Cervantes and Chief Inspector Antonio Montalba for pretending to help them by saying they will save the JCF students.
"But do you know what happened? Instead of helping the students they hit them and treated them like dogs," Rhapsody Dacudao averred.
She said the policemen used batons on hitting the students and barged inside the building without a warrant of arrest and a search warrant.
"The JCF don't need any lawyer instead we have our own defender," Tiongco said in reference to Rah Dacudao who had been acting as their counsel.
Letters detailing the events that led to the raid were distributed throughout the press conference.
The documents recounted that it was on January 18 when Jamailah Macarampat, one of their students who was bitten by a dog, unexpectedly arrived in school.
Jamailah told them her mother did not want to let her go to school but she left home riding a skateboard.
The child narrated to them that she was physically abused in their house and she wanted help from Rhapsody Dacudao.
At 1 p.m. of the same day, the child's mother came to the school looking for her child. She was met by a teacher at the ground floor. She was then asked what she had done to her daughter.
But the latter ignored the teacher and proceeded to the learning center where she found Jamailah. She wanted to bring Jamilah back to their house but her daughter refused to go home.
During interviews with media outlets, the parents of Macarampat intimated that their daughter had been strongly influenced by JCF officials who supposedly promised them an education in Great Britain.
Tiongco alleged that Cervantes and Montalba along with the police officers arrived at the school complete with assault weapons, a fire truck and a wrecker and started breaking the door and pulling down into a twisted mass of metal.
She said without a single word to the occupants or the building, the police raided the school amid cheers and encouragement from the crowd lining the street.
Tiongco said their group isn't dead contrary to what others think, saying theirs is a "way of life".
At the same occasion, five JCF students recounted their experience in the raid saying they were traumatized by the event.
As this developed, Tiongco said their group is preparing to file seven counter charges against the lawmen but declined to give details.
Tiongco said aside from the damage wrought by the raid, several valuables and personal belongings were missing.
"These policemen will answer in due time what they have done to us, they would just wait," Tiongco said.