The Philippine religious sect accused of violence and child abuse

The Philippine religious sect accused of violence and child abuse

On Monday, in the Senate of the Philippines, Senator Risa Hontiveros denounced the existence of a religious cult rooted on the island of Mindanao, in the south of the country, within which serious violence had been committed, including sexual abuse and rape on women and children. From last July onwards at least eight minors managed to escape from the area where the followers of the cult live, in the mountains of the island, and told of the abuse they suffered: Hontiveros he asked that an investigation be launched into this matter and that action be taken against its alleged leader, a 23-year-old known as Jey Rence B Quilario.

Followers of the Christian-inspired cult are part of an organization known as Omega de Salonera or Socorro Bayanihan Services Incorporated (SBSI): its members are estimated to be at least 3,500, of which over 1,500 are children. According to Hontiveros, they live in a “heavily guarded” area in Sitio Kapihan, in the mountains above Socorro, in the province of Surigao del Norte.

Within the group, marriages were organized between minors and followers of the group, rapes were committed and forced labor was organised. A 15-year-old girl known by the pseudonym “Chloe” said she had been forced, two years earlier, to marry a 21-year-old member of the group: she was then forced on several occasions to have sexual relations with her husband, to whom Quilario allegedly said several times that he had “the right to rape her” because they were married.

Chloe said she asked her parents for help in stopping the marriage. But they, followers of the cult, refused to help her claiming that it was necessary to follow «the will of the Messiah», as Quilario called himself, who allegedly forced other minors to have sexual relations with him. Six of the eight minors who fled the community are currently under government protection.

According to what Hontiveros declared, the cult was born in 2017. Quilario, then 17 years old, presented himself as “the new Messiah” and the reincarnation of Jesus: he gradually convinced more and more people to abandon their jobs and follow him into the mountains to search for ” heaven” and salvation, claiming that anyone who did not follow him would end up in hell. Hontiveros attributed the resignation of a large number of teachers and state employees in the area to the cult, as well as the collapse in school attendance of many students, probably brought with them by their parents.

Quilario allegedly convinced his followers to hand over their money, their pensions and any subsidies they received, and then forced them into forced labor by threatening physical punishment in case of refusal. According to Hontiveros, the organization’s activities were also financed through drug trafficking.

The cult’s following increased especially after 2019, the year in which a series of earthquakes hit the province of Surigao del Norte. Quilario allegedly exploited the fear of many residents of that area to manipulate them and convince them to follow him to the mountains to “save themselves from the end of the world“.