Acorda: PNP, NBI investigating Surigao del Norte ‘cult’ abuse allegations

The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) are now looking into allegations of abuse against an organization in Socorro, Surigao del Norte, PNP chief Police General Benjamin Acorda Jr. said on Tuesday.

“This is now being handled by the NBI. And kausap natin ang ating local police in the area and they informed us nagtutulungan naman sila. They help in gathering evidence,” Acorda told reporters.

(This is now being handled by the NBI. And I already talked to the local police in the area and they informed us they are helping each other on the case. They help in gathering evidence.)

Acorda also encouraged witnesses to come forward.

Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday revealed the allegations against Socorro Bayanihan Services, Inc. (SBSI), and called for the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality to probe in aid of legislation.

In proposed Senate Resolution No. 797 dated September 18, Hontiveros said the Senate received “alarming” reports of alleged rape, sexual abuse, forced labor, and forced marriage of minors in SBSI.

“A Senate investigation is needed to immediately address these urgent and alarming issues, rescue the children, effect the reintegration into society of the victims, and identify policy gaps in legislation that allow these cults to operate in plain view of the local government unit and other institutions,” she said.

Citing the Socorro Task Force-Kapihan, which was created by the town’s mayor, Hontiveros said the SBSI has indicators of a religious cult, with Jey Rence B. Quilario or Senior Agila as its "Messiah" and leader.

Hontiveros said that direct and first-hand testimonies claimed that Quilario engaged in acts of sexual abuse and violence against minors.

These acts include ordering girl-children to sleep with him, facilitating child marriages of children as young as twelve years old with adults, and locking adolescents in rooms in order for them to engage in sexual activities, she added.

Minor and adult members were made to perform acts of forced labor under pain of physical punishment, and were also forced to surrender 40-60% of their social welfare benefits like 4Ps, and senior citizen pensions to Quilario, Hontiveros said.

In response, the organization's vice president Mamerto Galanida said SBSI is prepared to face an investigation.

Galanida, who was a three-term mayor of Socorro, said they will await personnel from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

“Handang-handa kami. In fact, we’re expecting the secretary of Secretary [Benhur] Abalos to come. Wala namang problema,” he said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

(We are ready. In fact, we're expecting the secretary of Secretary Benhur Abalos to come. There’s no problem.)

Galanida called the allegations “fabricated lies” and said the claims that the group sourced its funding from government financial assistance to its members were “unfair” to them.

The SBSI is an organization with 3,560 members including 1,587 children, Hontiveros said, describing its location as an enclosed and heavily guarded area in a mountain of Sitio Kapihan in Socorro town. — BM, GMA Integrated News