Senate Detains Cult Leaders for Sexual Exploitation of Minors

By Beting Laygo Dolor, Contributing Editors

The young leader of a religious cult known as Senyor Agila was ordered detained by the Senate last week along with three leaders of the organization for lying about their sexual exploitation of minors.

Cited for contempt were Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc.’s (SBSI) Jey Rence Quilario AKA Senyor Agila along with Mamerto Galanida, Janeth Ajoc, and Karren Sanico, who denied allegations that they had not only ordered but also performed wedding ceremonies for children as young as 12 years of age.

The girls were forcibly wed to older boys 18 and above.

Two Senate committees – on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, and on Women and Children — held concurrent hearings on SBSI after Sen. Risa Hontiveros exposed what she called the sexual exploitation of more than a thousand minors in the town of Socorro in Surigao del Norte.

During the hearings, four witnesses from Sitio Kapihan said they had been forced by the SBSI’s elders to marry handpicked partners whom they had never met before.

One 15-year-old witness said she was not only married off against her will but was also repeatedly raped last year.

The girls were threatened they’d be “going to hell” if they did not agree to the orders of the SBSI leaders.

Quilario adopted the name Senyor Agila after he was anointed head of the cult, originally a people’s non-government organization, when he was 19 in 2019. He was proclaimed to be the reincarnation of the Santo Nino, or Christ child, and claimed to be able to perform miracles including stopping or bringing about rains.

Sen. Bato dela Rosa, however, said that Quilario was only a puppet of Galanida, a former three-term mayor of Socorro, along with a few others.

Galanida served as de facto spokesman of the group during the Senate hearings and said that what they had was “pre-arranged engagements” among minors but refused to answer questions on child marriages.

While SBSI leaders said they resented their organization being referred to as a cult, Dela Rosa said they showed every sign of being one, including their blind loyalty to their leader.

Quilario attempted to evade responsibility for his actions by citing his youth. He said he was surprised when he had been anointed by the previous leader of SBSI, which had been controlled by one family since it was founded back in the 80s.

Hontiveros said the organization had become a quasi-government that issued marriage licenses within the town.

It was also learned that SBSI had created its own private army which had its own uniform and had weapons ranging from wooden guns to high-powered rifles.

Kids as young as seven or eight were part of that private army, whose membership was in the hundreds.

It was also learned that SBSI limited the number of children who could attend public schools. This was confirmed by the Department of Education, which noted a sharp drop in enrollment of Socorro town children at about the time Senyor Agila assumed leadership of the cult.

The Senate hearings are set to continue this week at the municipality of Kapihan upon the request of residents, who said they could not afford to come to Manila to bear witness against the cult.

Justice Sec. Jesus Crispin Remulla said he was against the idea but Dela Rosa insisted that it was necessary. The senator, however, asked for security from the Armed Forces of the Philippines to escort them on their trip to Socorro town.

As a former PNP chief himself, Dela Rosa said he was also surprised that a number of active policemen had voluntarily resigned in order to join the SBSI.

Earlier this year, Socorro Mayor Riza Timcang created a task force to investigate reports of the questionable activities of SBSI. The body found that the cult had violated the children’s right to education as well as freedom of movement.

The cult leaders will remain under Senate arrest until further notice.