BY Ashzel Hachero and Raymond Africa
A COURT in Surigao del Norte yesterday issued warrants of arrest against Jey Rence Quilario, alias “Senior Agila,” and 12 other officers and members of the Socorro Bayanihan Services Incorporated (SBSI), the alleged cult operating in Socorro town, for qualified trafficking, facilitation of and solemnization of child marriages, and child abuse.
Last Monday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said in a press briefing that state prosecutors have filed 21 charges against Quilario and other SBSI officers before the Surigao del Norte Regional Trial Court.
Aside from Quilario, also ordered arrested by Branch 31 of the Dapa, Surigao del Norte RTC were Mamerto Digal Galanida, SBSI vice president; and SBSI officials Karren Sanico, Janeth Ajoc, Wenefredo Buntad, Giovanni Leogin Lasala, Ibrahim Adlao, Jovelito Atchecoso, Sergio Cubillan, Daryl Buntad, Jonry Elandag, Yure Gary Portillo, and Florencio Quiban.
The court recommended no bail for their temporary liberty.
The Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs turned over the 13, who were physically present during a hearing yesterday, to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who chairs the panel, lifted the contempt order against Quilario, Galanida, Sanico, and Ajoc on the motion of Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros.
The four were ordered detained at the Senate building last September after they were cited in contempt for consistently denying that child marriages exist among SBSI members, contrary to the evidence presented by witnesses.
Dela Rosa ordered the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms to initially take custody of the SBSI officials, who were later turned over to the NBI. The four ranking officials of the SBSI were handcuffed and then whisked away by the NBI.
In announcing the filing of the charges, Remulla expressed confidence the court would issue warrants of arrest against the respondents, considering the strength of the prosecution’s case.
DOJ Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty confirmed the court has issued a warrant against Quilario and 12 others.
“The judge issued the warrant just this morning,” Ty said, adding the NBI will implement the warrant against the respondents.
Last month, the NBI asked the DOJ to issue precautionary hold departure orders (PHDO) against Quilario and several other officials of SBSI.
Last June, the NBI recommended charging Quilario and other SBSI officials with qualified trafficking under Republic Act No. 9208 (Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003), violation of RA 7610 (Anti-Child Abuse Law), kidnapping, and serious illegal detention.
The allegations against the SBSI were initially brought to light by Hontiveros who, in a privileged speech, narrated the alleged abuses being committed against the group’s members, particularly minors, including sexual abuse and forced marriages, since 2019.
The group denied the allegations.
BABIES DEAD
Earlier during the hearing, Hontiveros said more than 200 babies aged four and below have died at the SBSI camp in Sitio Kapihan, Barangay Sering, in Socorro, Surigao del Norte after their parents were allegedly barred by SBSI leaders from seeking medical care.
“Why are we allowing children to die? Are you not taking proper care of the babies in Sitio Kapihan? Isn’t it that your patron saint is Sto. Nino and yet babies have been dying?”
Hontiveros told the cult leaders.
Last month, a graveyard for children was discovered when Dela Rosa made an ocular inspection of the SBSI camp in Sitio Kapihan. Dela Rosa ordered the NBI to exhume the remains of some babies for investigation.
Randolf Balbarino, father of one of the dead babies, told the committee their baby died two days after being born in December 2020. He said Quilario prevented the infant from being brought to a hospital outside the SBSI camp.
Balbarino also accused Quilario of acting as a “doctor” by conducting an “internal examination” on his wife. Quilario denied the allegations.
Hontiveros said Quilario might be charged with another criminal offense for such an act.
Pedrito Angcog, 79, a former SBSI member, revealed in a video recording that he was abducted and physically tortured by the “Agilas,” the private army of Quilario after he was accused of casting a spell on Galanida for him to become sick.
Angcog recalled that sometime in 2022, several men led by Wenefredo Buntad barged into his house and tied him with a cord before firing shots that grazed his ear. He said he was brought to Galanida’s house where he was further beaten by Buntad.
Buntad denied the allegation, saying he does not even know Angcog.
‘DISINTEGRATION’
Edelito Sangco, spokesperson of the Socorro Task Force Kapihan, said the municipal government has recommended to authorities to “disintegrate the Kapihan community” to put an end to “the cycle of lies and manipulation, children indoctrination on the uselessness of formal schooling, tourists’ scared to visit the island town of Socorro and possibly the entire Socorro, and the wanton exploitation of the Calangonan-Mahambong watershed resources.”
“Reverse the tide is to disintegrate its residents into the community where they once belonged prior to February 8, 2019,” said Sangco.
Sangco said SBSI members who opted to live in Sitio Kapihan should be brought to their former abodes in Barangays Salog, Rizal, Honrado, Navarro, Nueva Estrella, Taruc, Songkoy, del Pilar, and Sudlon.
Based on their investigation, Sangco said there were 407 families residing in 385 houses who left the barangays in 2019.
He said that 258 houses have been sold, 67 houses were “sold with the right to repurchase,” 36 were unsold and still livable, and 24 were unsold but damaged.
He said the local government may need P168 million for the disintegration program.
He said this can be done if the Department of Environment and Natural Resources revokes or cancels the Protected Area Community-Based Resource Management Agreement (PACBRMA) it awarded SBSI to use the more than 300-hectare Sitio Kapihan.
The PACBRMA is an agreement entered into by and between the DENR and organized tenured migrant communities or interested indigenous peoples in protected areas and buffer zones for 25 years and renewable for another 25 years.
The DENR entered into an agreement with the SBSI in 2004, but the agency suspended the pact last September due to several violations of the organization in using the protected area.
