An initial police raid on the KOJC compound on Friday prompted Quiboloy’s followers to gather on the nearby highway, staging a “religious prayer rally” that completely blocked access to the Davao City International Airport. The church has also claimed that the police’s storming of the 30-hectare [74-acre] KOJC compound resulted in the deaths of two followers due to fatal heart attacks.

Duterte himself has harshly condemned the police raid, stating: “Our country has never been in a more tragic state as it is today. Rights have been trampled upon and our laws derided.”

“We sympathise with the members of the KOJC for having become victims of political harassment, persecution, violence and abuse of authority,” Duterte said. “This certainly puts a dark stain on the hands of those involved in today’s incident, led by no less than the top police official of the region.”

His daughter and the current vice-president, Sara Duterte-Carpio, added her voice to the criticism on Sunday, publicly asking KOJC members for forgiveness “for persuading and requesting you to vote for [Ferdinand] Bongbong Marcos Jnr in 2022. May you forgive me. You deserve better. Filipinos deserve better”.

She went on to “vehemently condemn the gross abuse of police power in the [complete] takeover of the KOJC compound”, which she said “led to the harassment of religious worshippers, the abuse of minors, and the unnecessary loss of life”.

Duterte-Carpio said she was not opposed to the lawful serving of arrest warrants, but called the police’s actions “not only a blatant violation of constitutionally protected rights but a betrayal of the trust that we, Filipinos, place in the very institution sworn to protect and serve us”.

Marcos Jnr avoided directly addressing the situation on Monday during his public engagement to mark National Heroes Day. His executive secretary, Lucas Bersamin, simply said: “He [Quiboloy] is answerable to the law. The law must take its course.”

Israelito Torreon, KOJC’s chief legal counsel, held an online press briefing on Monday to appeal to the police not to detonate explosives inside the church’s school, where they believed an entrance to an underground bunker was located.

Torreon denied the existence of a bunker where Quiboloy was supposedly hiding, and warned that the use of explosives would be a “severe violation of human rights”.

He also insisted that the police’s actions were in violation of the law, as they were only armed with a warrant to arrest a certain Sylvia Cemañes, not Quiboloy himself. Cemañes is one of the five co-accused with Quiboloy in a separate case of child abuse and sexual abuse filed before the Philippine Regional Trial Court branch in April.

The attempt to arrest Quiboloy is seen as part of a larger power struggle between the Duterte and Marcos clans. Both sides became allies during the 2022 presidential election when Marcos Jnr and Duterte-Carpio campaigned as a team, but the duo have since become bitter rivals.

On Friday evening, Duterte’s former spokesman Harry Roque rushed to the EDSA highway – the site of the historic EDSA “people power” uprising that led to the ousting of President Ferdinand Marcos Snr in 1986 – and recorded himself live on Facebook calling for people to march on the presidential palace and unseat Marcos Jnr. However, the call garnered little response.

Duterte supporters did gather late on Monday in Manila near the city hall to urge Marcos Jnr to step down.

Supporters of Quiboloy and Duterte have claimed that retired and active generals, as well as Muslim leaders, were rushing to Davao City to support the former president and pastor, but not prominent voices had spoken out as of press time.

As the events unfolded in Davao City, Manila on Friday saw the formation of Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Mamamayan (Alliance of United Citizens) or Anim, an organisation that brings together retired generals, prominent religious leaders, businessmen, civil society groups and civic leaders.

Anim’s stated purpose is to “fight against corruption, political dynasty, and poor electoral reform.” The group clarified that it would not campaign or support any political candidate or party in the 2025 national and local elections. Instead, it will serve as a watchdog to ensure that the polls are free of fraud and that members of political dynasties are not re-elected. It has also vowed to expose corruption-tainted infrastructure projects.

Businessman Alex Lacson, one of the Anim conveners, cited a 2022 paper by the Ateneo de Manila University’s policy centre that categorised political dynasties as either “thin” or “fat”. A “thin” dynasty is one where a single family controls one elective post for a long time, while a “fat” dynasty has several family members running for various posts in every election

Lacson said the study found that “after the 2022 elections, 77.8 per cent of the provinces in the country are controlled by the fat dynasties”. A separate study in 2023 by senior economist Dr Ronald Mendoza and his team from the Asian Institute of Management concluded that “the fatter the dynasty, the poorer the community”. Lacson added.

Anim’s members did not name any specific politicians they considered corrupt. However, Baguio City mayor and retired police official Benjamin Magalong, one of Anim’s conveners, said: “Silence [towards corrupt acts] is no longer an option. Time to speak out, speak up and act.”

According to Berlin-based Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, the Philippines scored 34 out of 100 last year, up from 33 a year earlier. The global average was 43.

Among Asean member states, the Philippines tied with Indonesia in sixth place and ranked above Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar.