A cult leader, who believes he is Jesus reincarnated, has been accused of creating a doomsday scenario in the Philippines.
Jey Rence B Quilario leads the quasi-religious cult Omega de Salonera, where is it believed by Save The Children that ‘rape, sexual violence, child abuse, forced marriage has been perpetrated on minors’. There are an estimate 1,500 children being held on a remote island by the cult and the charity is urging the government to take action.
Save the Children decided to step in on Friday to protect the youngsters after Senator Ronald Dela Rosa accused the group’s leaders of using cult members as ‘human shields’ and running a meth lab in an underground bunker near to where Quilario and fellow leaders live, reported the Telegraph.
Alberto Muyot, chief executive of the organization’s Philippines branch, said: “We urgently call upon the government, specifically our law enforcement agencies, to conduct immediate and thorough investigations into these incidents. Secure the protection of the affected children, and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Senator Risa Hontiveros, chairman of the senate committee on women and children, added: “This is a harrowing story of rape, sexual violence, child abuse, forced marriage perpetrated on minors by a cult in the municipality of Socorro, Surigao del Norte.
We are talking about over a thousand young people in the hands of a deceitful, cruel, and abusive cult. “Real children are in danger, and time is of the essence. We cannot, we must not, look away.”
The cult began as a civic organisation called Socorro Bayanihan Services but changed its name in 2017 to Omega de Salonera when it became a quasi-religious cult. Later they used an earthquake to lure thousands more people in, claiming that joining was “the way to avoid the impending threat of eternal damnation.”
