A magic ‘cape’ to mulct the poor

For more than a year now, local radio stations in General Santos City have been feasting on a group or movement called the Kabus Padato-on (Cebuano-Visayan for “to make the poor rich”) or its popular moniker, Kapa.

One radio station is vociferous in its denunciation of the group, saying that it has used religion to entice people to “donate” to the group to make the poor rich. But another radio station praises the group to high heavens, using religious sayings lifted from the Bible about how noble it is to help the poor.

The word “kapa” is Cebuano-Visayan for cape or cloak. It is a brilliant choice of acronym to use because aside from the powerful message of making the poor rich (who is the poor person who abhors becoming rich?), it also means shield or protection.

I am not a fan of either radio station, especially their daily dose of repetitive bashing or praising Kapa that for me has reached nauseating levels.  But I believe that Kapa is actually mulcting the poor.

The English equivalent of “kapa,” which is cloak, is also suggestive of an insidious modus operandi of individuals hiding under the cloak of religious tenets to hoodwink people to take part in their pyramiding “investment” scam.  Accordingly, investing in Kapa will provide the magic “cape” to make them rich quick.

The founder of Kapa is a religious functionary who claims to be a “modern Moses.” This sounds eerily familiar—we know of a widely known “appointed son of God” whose private plane has been used in the campaign sorties of then candidate Rodrigo Duterte.

Using religious tenets to ensnare the support of the poor to a pyramiding or multilevel “investment” scam is downright reprehensible, since the promoter of the scam is a religious organization and not a legally registered investment house.

Lately, Kapa is reported to be accepting donations of at least P500. This could be an ominous sign that the walls of the pyramiding scam are about to cave in.

Some poor farmers in Sarangani province are reported to have given up farming and have sold their farm animals so they can invest more money in Kapa. A banker friend also disclosed that some officers of farmers’ organizations—among their countryside clients—have decided to withdraw their deposits in the bank upon the prodding of their members who are Kapa investors.  They compare the measly interest rates in the bank with the whopping 30-percent interest if they donate money to Kapa.

Pyramiding schemes work only when there is a large base of “investors” whose money is used to pay off interests to investors at the top of the “pyramid.”  Once the number of people starts to decline, the pyramid crumbles—and those who just started “investing”—who are actually the base of the pyramid, will no longer be able to recoup their investments.

Because Kapa claims to have gotten the “investments” as “donations,” it can easily rationalize they are not obliged to give interests to monies “donated” to them. Kapa will surely abscond responsibility to pay off all “investors” when the promised pyramid of riches self-destructs in the near future.

“Investors” will soon rue the day they met these con men and women who inveigled them to part with their hard-earned money in exchange for a magic “cape” to make them rich quick.  These glib-tongued operators are no different from snake oil salespersons.

Voters in the coming elections should only vote for candidates with clear strategies to stem the growth of get rich scams.  Voters beware!

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