Police find boy’s body in pit inside healer’s home in Cebu town
CEBU, Philippines—National Bureau of Investigation agents arrested a self-proclaimed healer and cult leader at his home in a mountain village in Balamban town Saturday, finding the decomposed body of a teenager in a pit inside his house and rescuing a woman he had allegedly detained for more than five years.
Casiano “Tatay Loloy” Apduhan, 45, is now a suspect in the death of Angelo Repuela, 24, who the authorities believe has been dead for over a year and whose body was found at the bottom of a 30-foot-deep pit inside the cultist’s home in the mountain village of Buanoy in Balamban.
Apduhan, who claimed to have power to heal the sick and bring the dead to life, was also accused of illegally detaining Emma Nepomuceno, 33, for over five years. Two .38 caliber revolvers were also recovered from the house.
“This is a very rare case. We’re still studying the appropriate charges to be filed against the suspect. But definitely, one of the charges will be serious illegal detention,” said supervising agent Rey Villordon of the NBI’s Region 7 office.
Wednesday’s raid on Apduhan’s home stemmed from complaints filed by the parents of Repuela and Nepomuceno at the Provincial Women’s Commission that their children were being held at Apduhan’s house.
The PWC sought the help of the NBI, which conducted surveillance operations for two weeks before asking Judge Hermes Montero of the Regional Trial Court in Toledo City to issue a search warrant on Tuesday afternoon.
Heda Largo, PWC consultant, said Nepomuceno was to undergo medical and psychologiocal examination to determine the extent of the damage caused by being detained for over five years.
“Imagine being detained for more than five years. What could have been its effect on her state of mind?” Largo said
Nepomuceno refused to talk with the media. After her rescue, she asked PWC representaives, “Who reported this?”
Her mother, Alicia, said she had thought her daughter was working abroad all these years.
“The last time I saw her was in 2008. She told me that she would travel to Italy. But I was worried because she didn’t bother to call us for the past years,” Alicia told reporters. She said another daughter recently saw the victim inside Apduhan’s residence, prompting them to seek the assistance of the police.
“We’re shocked that she was just here,” Alicia said.
Repuela’s parents chose to remain in their house in Naga City in southern Cebu while waiting for the results of the NBI operation.
Dr. Rene Cam, NBI medical examiner, said Angelo’s body had completely decomposed and it was difficult to determine signs of struggle or foul play. He said he believed the boy had been dead for over a year.
Since the boy’s parents were not available, the Inquirer could not ascertain how long ago the boy was brought to Apduhan.
When interviewed by reporters, Apduhan denied responsibility for the boy’s death.
“I really didn’t have any idea that the body of the boy was buried beneath my house,” he said.
He said the boy was alread dead when the boy’s father, Terio, brought Angelo to his house. He didn’t know that the body was placed in the pit inside his house, he added.
Apduhan also denied detaining Nepomuceno, saying she was free to go wherever she wanted. Nepomuceno, however, had asked her not to tell her family that she was in Balamban, he added.
“She has a problem with her family. She asked me not to tell her family that she was just here,” he said.
While he claimed a following of some 30,000 for his group called “Diyos Amahan” (God, the Father), he denied it was cult, saying he was a member of the Catholic Church.
“I can no longer remember when it started,” Apduhan said about the group. “My grandfather started it. Those who were healed just informed other people about what I’ve done. That’s why we have (so many) members,” he said.
He claimed to have been healing the sick since he was three years old.
He said his grandfather, Casiano Lebron, passed this power to his mother Amananita who in turn taught him how to heal the sick.
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