9 ex-Socorro members in IACAT custody

MANILA, Philippines — Nine former members, all minors, of the Socorro Bayanihan Services Inc. (SBSI), which senators described as a “cult,” are now in the protective custody of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), Sen. Risa Hontiveros said yesterday.

Hontiveros said aside from the minors, the IACAT, chaired by Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla of the Department of Justice (DOJ), has also taken into custody four adults as “various circumstances warrant the immediate protective custody of the subject trafficking victims.”

The senator expressed optimism that the former SBSI members, including minors, will soon tell the truth and collaborate on the testimony of previous resource persons, who revealed the violations and abuses of the SBSI leaders.

“The DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) and the IACAT decided to keep in their custody the minor and the adult members of SBSI,” Hontiveros said in a radio interview over dzBB.

“Hopefully at the next hearing, they (parents of the former SBSI minors) will say (the truth). Because at the first hearing they objected to the protective custody of their children by the mayor and municipal social works office. I hope they would side with their children and against the cult leaders,” Hontiveros added in Filipino.

During Thursday’s public hearing of the Senate joint committees on women and children and on public order, several witnesses exposed the abuses of the SBSI leaders, including forced marriages, rape of minors and forced labor.

SBSI leader Jey Rence Quilario – dubbed as cult leader “Senior Agila” – denied the allegations of their former members.

Hontiveros also showed Remulla’s letter to DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian, endorsing the protective custody of the nine former SBSI members including five minors who are now with the IACAT.

Remulla expressed concerns about the three children that top officials of SBSI attempted to present as their witnesses in the joint committee hearing, and the other children and adults rescued from SBSI presently under the custody of regional or local social welfare offices.

“There is very strong evidence that these children and adults are victims of human