SOCIAL Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian yesterday ordered an investigation into allegations that a religious cult in Surigao del Norte has supposedly been collecting the cash grant of its members who are beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Gatchalian issued the directive, including ensuring the welfare of 4PS beneficiaries, to department officials in Surigao del Norte following the privileged speech of Sen. Risa Hontiveros about the activities of the cult, the Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc.
The agency said there are 503 household 4Ps beneficiaries in Barangay Siring in Socorro, including 74 households in Sitio Kapihan where the cult is based.
The department will also look into the beneficiaries of the department’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) in the Caraga Administrative Region amid reports that the alleged religious cult also has influence in different parts of the region.
Hontiveros and Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa have filed resolutions calling for a Senate investigation into the activities of the Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc.
Hontiveros said rape, sexual violence, child abuse, and forced marriage were allegedly being committed by the alleged cult.
She said it started as the “Socorro Bayanihan Services, Inc.” in 2017 but a massive earthquake in Surigao del Norte in 2019 provided the opportunity to lure followers to go to the mountains to be “saved.”
Hontiveros said this resulted in a mass resignation of government employees and public school teachers and a drop in enrollment in the Socorro East and West Districts.
She added that funding allegedly comes from the 4Ps and AICS benefits of its members.
She also said the alleged cult leaders are involved in the illegal drug trade.
COPS LINKED TO CULT?
Dela Rosa yesterday said he has received information that former policemen are members of the alleged cult operating in Socorro, Surigao del Norte now being probed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
Last Wednesday, Justice Assistant Secretary Jose Dominic Clavano said they are looking at information that Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc. was allegedly operating a clandestine shabu laboratory being guarded by armed men.
Clavano said DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has instructed the NBI to look at reports the SBSI is training minors to become members of a private army or militia.
Dela Rosa said he has received the same reports.
“That is the same information that my office received, that there are policemen who have gone AWOL and joined that group,” Dela Rosa told CNN Philippines, hinting the former cops may have been training the cult members.
Dela Rosa added he also received information that there are teachers who have left the government to join the SBSI.
“Even education in the group is allegedly being provided by resigned teachers who have left the service and decided to concentrate on the group,” he said.
Dela Rosa added his office has received a letter from the mayor of Socorro town requesting for a probe on the SBSI’s alleged operation of a shabu laboratory and the presence of heavily armed men calling themselves Agila.
The shabu laboratory is allegedly housed in an underground bunker within the vicinity of the residence of SBSI leader Jey Rence Quilario, alias Senior Agila, and other leaders.
Dela Rosa said all of these will be tackled during a hearing to be held by the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs that he heads on September 28.
He said the hearing will also look into allegations of human trafficking, sexual abuse and forced marriages allegedly being perpetrated by the SBSI on its members, including minors.
He added the role of Quilario will also be tackled in the senate inquiry.
Dela Rosa said the inquiry will also look into the 2021 killings of one Rosalina Taruc, allegedly the former president of SBSI, and her daughter, former Mayor Denia Florano, allegedly the incoming leader of the group.
Taruc’s daughter was killed eight days after the former was murdered.
The NBI-Caraga Regional Office in Butuan City has recommended charging Quilario and several other SBSI officers and members 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 recommendation was forwarded to the Surigao del Norte Prosecutor’s Office last June.
PRIVATE ARMY
Hontiveros disclosed yesterday that two former SBSI members told her office the group is maintaining a private army whose members include minors, some as young as 12 years old.
Hontiveros, quoting part of the testimony of Karl, 28, one of the two former SBSI members, said the group practices fencing, how to use knives, how to bear arms, and how to disassemble and assemble guns like pistols and rifles.
She said Karl claimed he used to be part of the Agila Squad, the armed group of SBSI, which has 107 members.
Karl said he and the other members of the Agila Squad were told they were “Soldiers of God.”
Hontiveros said another SBSI member, a 13-year-old girl, said she escaped from the group with her parents because she wanted to go to school.
“I wanted to attend school but we were not allowed. My mother looked for ways (for us) to escape from the guards so that I could attend school,” Hontiveros quoted the girl as saying.
