‘Cult’ leader charged, maintains innocence

 CEBU, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-7 yesterday filed criminal complaints before the Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor against the alleged leader of a religious cult in Balamban town.

 Supervising agent Rey Villordon said Casiano “Tatay Boy” Legaspino Apduhan of  Laray 3, Barangay Buanoy, Balamban would be facing charges for serious illegal detention and illegal possession of firearms for allegedly imprisoning a 28-year-old woman in his house and for possessing unlicensed guns.

The NBI together with the Provincial Women’s Commission left for Toledo City at 1 p.m. yesterday to file the complaints before the Toledo City Prosecutor’s Office.

They, however, had to go back to Cebu City and proceed to the provincial fiscal’s office, which had greater jurisdiction over the complaints.

Apduhan was arrested following a dawn raid last Wednesday by NBI agents and Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) members implementing a search warrant, which was for the exhumation of the remains of a 15-year old boy buried deep inside a 30-foot tunnel under Apduhan’s house and for the possible rescue of a 28-year-old woman, who was allegedly detained there for five years.

 Aside from rescuing Tricia (real name withheld), who is now under the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and finding the remains of Angelo Repuela, the NBI also seized from Apduhan two paltik .38 revolvers.

In her affidavit, Agatha (real name withheld) alleged that on Nov. 27, 2008, she saw her daughter Trisha board a white tricycle with a male person believed to be Apduhan, who received Tricia’s bag, in the front seat. The two, she said knew each other because she could hear her daughter over her cellular phone calling Apduhan as Tatay.

She said that since then, Tricia’s whereabouts could no longer be traced.

 Ritchie Fajardo, a resident of Laray III, Buanoy, said his family is a follower of Apduhan, who allegedly called himself Diyos Amahan (God, The Father).

 Fajardo said that starting when he was10, he worked with Apduhan in his huge house named CLL. He said he also knew Eleuterio Repuela, the father of Angelo, because the man also worked in Apduhan’s house.

Eleuterio and his wife, Remegia, of Alpaco, Naga City, Cebu, were allegedly followers of Apduhan.

 Fajardo alleged that in 2011, Eleuterio started living in Apduhan’s house while Remegia and Angelo stayed in a nearby house in 2012, the year Angelo died.

Fajardo said that Angelo’s body, wrapped with a brown blanket, was brought out of a multicab and brought underground upon the instructions of Apduhan.

“We went down to the tunnel and placed the dead body into a small cave inside the tunnel. Then, upon the instruction of Tatay, we cemented the entrance of the small cave,” said Fajardo, who mentioned in his affidavit that he also meet Tricia, a faithful follower of Apduhan, in the house.

Fajardo stated in his affidavit that the cause of Angelo’s death was “never known to the parents ex,cept that it was known to them that their son was offered for sacrifice to the bulawan and by that, assured by a promise with their Diyos Amahan the coming of his son to life in the year 2013, which never came.”

When their son did not come to life in 2013, Eleuterio and Remegia realized that Apduhan was an “impostor” so they fled.

In an interview, Apduhan denied the accusations, saying he never detained Tricia and that the woman could testify that she was free to leave his house if she wanted to.

He likewise denied killing Angelo, maintaining that he and his family did not know that the boy’s body was actually buried underneath his house.

He said he was innocent of the charges, including that on allegations of sexual abuse he reportedly committed and of owning the gun found in his house.

 â€œMaypa bitayon nalang ko sa krus kun maoy makahimuot nila (They might as well nail me to the cross if it would gladden them),” he said. —/RHM (FREEMAN)