Kulto sa Surigao | Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho
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FunTranscript
00:00 In 2019, the earth was shaken by the faith of the supporters of Surigao del Norte.
00:07 "The magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook some parts of Surigao del Norte earlier."
00:12 When the magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit them.
00:17 But in the midst of the chaos, a savior appeared who promised a new paradise.
00:30 He is the 17-year-old J. Renz Killario,
00:35 who is better known in their area as Senor Aguila.
00:40 "That's what we were thinking at that time that he is really God."
00:45 "Because there is an aftershock and there are tsunami that will happen.
00:49 If we don't join, we will all go to the empire."
00:52 More than 5,000 people from different places, even professionals.
00:58 Like police, government employees, and teachers.
01:02 They immediately resigned from their jobs to respond to the invitation to join the so-called SBSI.
01:11 Socorro Bayanihan Services Incorporated.
01:14 "We all made a mass resignation. We climbed a mountain."
01:18 "The Lord promised us that we will go to heaven."
01:21 "That's what our new Messiah told us."
01:23 "They are believing. If they die there, they will surely go to heaven."
01:26 But the promised paradise became a nightmare.
01:32 "I kept thinking, why did I stay there for so long?"
01:36 The life of some in the neighborhood became hell.
01:42 They were forced to get married and have children with members of SBSI.
01:48 "They told me that I can do it. I can rape them because they are my husband."
01:53 They were forced to leave their families and forced to work.
01:59 The most troublesome thing here was that they did not abuse the children.
02:05 "I really know who caused the turbulence and who forced them to get married."
02:09 How true is it that they were accused of SBSI?
02:16 It's a cult.
02:20 One of the members of the group, Gemma, was a month pregnant.
02:25 Her name is not her real name.
02:27 "All of us, my parents, my siblings, we did not expect that we will live there forever."
02:33 The members said that the 353 hectares of land that was occupied by the SITYO Kapihan was in the top of the mountain.
02:46 The SITYO Kapihan was said to be able to build houses like those in an organized community.
02:52 Made of wood, they have their own family and recording studio.
02:57 They also have their own radio station.
03:00 "When a member of your family is sick, they help you. They will help you to build your own house because there is a so-called Bayanihan."
03:08 Gemma was placed in different clusters or groups.
03:12 "By age, it's in a cluster. It identifies people who can still use it and who can only use it at home."
03:19 The schedule is tight.
03:22 Every 3 am, they are all awake for a help.
03:28 "The rules are repeated every day so that you will not be disturbed."
03:33 After that, they will do their volunteer work, such as planting.
03:39 They are also used to military exercises.
03:43 "As long as you have a gun, as long as you are authorized by the senior, you can hold the children."
03:49 They say that they have their own world.
03:52 But they have things to sacrifice.
03:59 The members are ordered by Senior Aguila to leave their lives down.
04:06 It is strictly prohibited for them to have a connection outside, even to their own children.
04:13 This is something that Alias Beth experienced.
04:16 "Senior asked them to leave because my family is in a cluster. They were not allowed to enter."
04:22 They are like prisoners.
04:25 "You cannot go out of the room without a pass that was given by Senior."
04:31 "There is a punishment if you find out that you have escaped."
04:34 "Sometimes, you will be punished or you will be restricted to a room."
04:37 "You will be beaten there, you will be beaten on the head."
04:40 Since the work in the cluster is voluntary,
04:44 the members do not have a salary.
04:47 They feed themselves.
04:50 They say that material things such as money are also prohibited.
04:54 "Senior Aguila told us that no one can go to heaven if you have money in your hands."
04:59 That is why they are allowed to go outside, but they have to sell their belongings.
05:04 "Senior Aguila told us that we cannot use our belongings because the entire cluster will be flooded."
05:08 "Senior Aguila gave us 40% of the house that we sold."
05:12 Here's more, 40% of the benefits received by the members of the government,
05:19 such as four-piece and pension of senior citizens,
05:23 they have to donate for the expenses of SBSI.
05:29 "The people there, even if it's a flood."
05:31 "All the income of the people that he collects."
05:34 "He said, 'It's okay to ask because if you don't ask and if you are ashamed, you are a demon.'
05:39 We became beggars.
05:41 It's like you are lowering yourself.
05:42 Even if it's five or even a peso, we really don't have any."
05:45 "It's up to me to do it. I am a dosa now. At least someday."
05:52 "Senior promised that we will go to heaven."
05:56 "This is illegal, simple robbery.
05:59 The maximum penalty for this is 10 years imprisonment."
06:02 "The law clearly states that the money is only for those beneficiaries of the law."
06:10 The members of the government did not back down.
06:14 Even the minors, like the children of Gema, experienced it.
06:19 "They were forced to work in their barracks. They were forced to work in the fields,
06:22 they were forced to collect sand and stones.
06:24 He told me, 'Are we really like this?'
06:26 It's painful, ma'am, to see your children like that every day.
06:31 They want to study."
06:32 But what they were most heartbroken about was the order to force some of their fellow members to get married.
06:41 "We need to get married. We cannot go to heaven."
06:45 The 18-year-old Alfred, who was not a real name, was one of the first to get married to his fellow member.
06:54 "The women and children were forced to be paired.
06:58 I paired them when he was 24 years old.
07:00 It was very difficult because we were the same.
07:03 If you don't get the woman for three nights, we call the adjustment.
07:07 We were called by Sen. Aguila. He told me, 'You can do it. You can rape her because she's your wife.
07:14 She can't do anything. I really can't do it because I don't really intend to. She's a liar.'
07:19 Even the minors, or the children, even though their parents were not against it,
07:25 they did not give up. They were also forced to get married.
07:29 "I really know who the first 12-year-old was who got married there."
07:33 "We have minimum age requirement for the marriage to be valid.
07:38 So, the marriages that are below 18 years of age, the marriage is not valid."
07:43 "Child marriage, whoever is in the same age group, or in adolescence,
07:49 can also be sentenced to prison.
07:53 I think that is about 6 to 12 years and there is a fine of P50,000 or more."
08:00 If a family member does not return immediately after going out or going down the mountain,
08:07 the wife who left him will be forced to marry someone else, like what happened to Gemma's friend.
08:15 "She went down the mountain for a month. When she returned to the village, her husband got married.
08:19 It was a forced marriage. If you are the man, if you are the one who lives there,
08:23 you can choose the woman you want to marry."
08:26 "The marriage requires a voluntary entry by the woman and the man.
08:32 If there is a forced marriage, the status of that marriage is valid until it is annulled."
08:39 Because of the bad behavior and the running away from the group,
08:44 some members ran away.
08:48 Until Beth was forced to leave in 2021 and since then, she has not returned.
08:55 "I left my family behind. I kept thinking, 'Why did I stay there for so long?'"
09:04 "I said, 'This is not right. There is something wrong.' I was so blind and deaf.
09:11 I believed that they were right, that God really exists."
09:15 Their stories reached the local government of Socorro once.
09:21 One of the escapees, Marie, whose real name is not known, posted her story online.
09:28 It was only when her husband was forced to leave the mountain that she married someone else.
09:34 "She was forced to marry someone else. We were together for 17 years. We have three children."
09:40 "Because, ma'am, it hurts. I don't know what I will do then."
09:51 That is why the LGU, or the Local Government Unit of Socorro,
09:55 formed a special task force to investigate the truth of what happened inside the SBSI.
10:07 "We thought that only a few people would come.
10:10 It was hard to enter that place because the gate was three layers.
10:14 The guards were fully armed and there were 48 guardhouses surrounding it.
10:20 The government was really powerless."
10:22 This hot issue in Mindanao reached the Senate when Senator Risa Ontiveros
10:31 delivered her privileged speech on September 18.
10:35 "More than a thousand youths were in the hands of a cruel, cruel, and abusive cult."
10:45 "Mayor Risa Tim Kang reached out directly to them.
10:49 They were the ones who were able to save the eight children who escaped last July.
10:54 The next step was given by the Senate Committee on Public Safety
10:59 and secondarily by the Senate Committee on Women and Children on September 28.
11:06 We invited all stakeholders, the children themselves and their parents,
11:12 including Sen. Aguila, to get the punishment.
11:17 This Friday, our team climbed up Sitio Capihan.
11:23 [music]
11:31 But what caught their eye was a cultural show.
11:36 [children cheering]
11:41 [music]
11:47 [singing]
11:53 [cheering]
11:56 The women members were noticed to have short hair.
12:00 "This is our identity.
12:02 Even though we are different, we can identify that we are truly the Capihan person."
12:07 "Potential in the area.
12:09 The people in Capihan are different."
12:12 Their location was also shown to our team.
12:16 "This is the quadrangle.
12:18 This is where we train for our cultural shows."
12:23 "What you see up there is called the foxhole.
12:26 According to them, for us, that's called a lagaw.
12:29 In English, it's a guardhouse.
12:31 The purpose of that is so that we can be in the middle of the land.
12:35 If the heat is too high, like now, that's what they can see."
12:38 And there was already the leader of the organization,
12:41 Jey Renz, or Senior Aguila, who held a presentation.
12:46 He lied about his malicious tricks.
12:51 "As long as you have a gun, as long as you are authorized by the senior,
12:55 you can hold the children."
12:56 "We were shooting, we were doing military training.
12:59 Because of our shooting, we were doing video making.
13:02 It was just props."
13:03 "The women and the children, they were just playing.
13:07 I really know who was the first 12-year-old who got married there."
13:11 "There was no ceremony that happened.
13:13 It's not a child marriage because I wasn't married.
13:16 I'm not a priest.
13:17 I'm a believer of God.
13:19 Whatever God is, He is my God."
13:21 "There's a punishment if you find out that you ran away.
13:24 Sometimes, you're punished or you're restricted in the foxhole.
13:27 And you're even beaten there.
13:29 You get a headshot."
13:30 "Our community is like a subdivision.
13:32 It's not prohibited, it's regulated.
13:34 Because we live here peacefully.
13:37 We don't want to be invaded by bad people because it's for our safety purposes."
13:41 "The people there, even if it's a robbery."
13:44 "All the money that people earn, they collect it."
13:47 "That's not true, ma'am.
13:48 It's all for the sake of money."
13:49 "Our fans are our helpers.
13:52 We all work together.
13:54 We have a tradition of helping the poor.
13:56 It's not true that we get the benefits of people.
14:00 Please, no.
14:01 Even if they investigate this, nothing like that happened."
14:03 "All the allegations, we vehemently deny.
14:06 Because it's not true.
14:07 It's fabricated."
14:08 "More than 1,000 youths are in the hands of a corrupt,
14:14 cruel, and abusive cult."
14:18 "Sen. Aguila can deny that they are a cult."
14:23 "We are hurt because it's a heavy allegation.
14:27 What we call a cult is like discrimination."
14:29 "Our life here is very happy.
14:32 We live simply.
14:33 You can see our faces here.
14:36 Our family is very happy to live here,
14:40 even if it's in the woods or in the mountains."
14:43 "Why are they denying?
14:45 Why are we the ones who are saying that we are just creating words that are not true?
14:50 We know that they are the ones who are wrong."
14:53 "The Mayor decided to take custody of our municipal social welfare and development officers.
14:59 They are in a safe house now.
15:02 If anyone wants to reintegrate here in the society,
15:06 the LGU is willing to help."
15:08 "There are many people who are susceptible to a cult
15:11 because first and foremost,
15:13 they have techniques to be included in a society.
15:18 They always attack people who have financial, emotional, social, or spiritual needs.
15:26 They are the ones who are lacking resources.
15:29 They lack social pressure.
15:31 It means that it will be difficult for you to be able to communicate."
15:34 "I hope that they will all be human."
15:38 "I want to take their lives so that they can return to their homes."
15:46 "Don't judge them right away.
15:49 To see what's happening here,
15:52 just visit Kapihan.
15:53 Then, you can trust them.
15:54 Interview the people."
15:56 "I invite all the curious people here to come here.
15:59 I will assure you that this place is safe because we are not hiding anything."
16:03 "We want to correct all our mistakes.
16:06 Maybe it's time to give justice to what we have experienced."
16:09 In correcting tragedies,
16:12 people's trust and conviction will be tested.
16:17 The desperate are easily persuaded by promises.
16:22 But, they are also not far from being abused.
16:25 In the investigation about SBSI,
16:30 I hope the truth will be revealed.
16:34 Thank you so much, Kapuso.
16:40 If you liked this video,
16:42 subscribe to the GMA Public Affairs YouTube channel.
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16:53 You can do it!
16:56 (audience cheering)