CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 29 September) — A pro-child advocacy group said cult leader Jey Rence Quilario should be imprisoned and his cult, the Socorro Bayanihan Services, be disbanded for the safety of its members who testified against him at the Senate inquiry on Thursday.
Lawyer Fionah Bojos of the Cebu for Human Rights, the group that helped document Quilario’s alleged abuses, said cult members in Socorro town, in Siargao, Surigao del Norte were deeply agitated after watching the inquiry.
She feared the enraged cult members might get back at the families of the minors who testified at the Senate investigation.
Three minors using the pseudonyms “Jane,” “Coco,” and “Renz” told senators that Quilario, who is believed to be promoting a belief system centered on a doomsday scenario, forced them to marry other members who are older than them.
“Cults in backward agriculture communities are always dangerous,” Bojos said.
She called on the lawmakers to pass a law outlawing cults in the Philippines.
Socorro Mayor Riza Timcang called for police reinforcement amid threats that the remaining cult members will stage a protest action in the town.
“There is a real threat and imminent danger of violence escalation from agitated members,” Timcang told reporters in Manila.
The Socorro Bayanihan Services has at least 3,500 members, including children. They lived in a small mountain village heavily guarded by members who called themselves the “Army of God.”
“Renz” said that like the other children he was trained to be a soldier of the “Army of God” despite being only 12 years old.
“Our leaders forbade us children to go to school and punished us by putting us in foxholes if we committed infractions,” he testified.
He said he left the group and escaped because at his age he still does not know how to write.
Timcang said at least 847 children from the group have dropped from school since 2019.
For her part, “Jane,” 15, told senators that Quilaro also known as Senior Agila (Eagle) forced her to marry an 18-year old man when she was 13 years old.
“We were later brought to a room where our leader told my husband to rape me,” she said during the inquiry.
Quilario and the other leaders repeatedly denied the accusations made by the minors and other former members of the cult.
“Hindi po, hindi po nangyayari (no, that did not happen),” he said.
He maintained he did not disallow the children from leaving their village in Sitio Kapihan, Socorro.
One of the leaders, former Mayor Mamerto Galanida, said he was not aware that the allegations of forced marriage, rape, and forced recruitment occurred in their village.
Senator Risa Hontiveros cited Quilario, Gaanida and two other cult leaders, Janeth Ajoc and Karen Sanico, for contempt.
Senator Ronald dela Rosa, chair of the committee on public order and dangerous drugs ordered the detention of the four cult leaders in the Senate. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
