Cult members urged to help pin down leader

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Vice Governor Agnes Magpale yesterday urged the other members of cult leader Casiano Apduhan to come out and help them prosecute him.

“I urge them nga mo-come out and help us kay dili ra ni human trafficking, possible naa’y abuse of women, naa pa’y murder,” said Magpale referring to the skeleton of a young boy found inside the house of Apduhan when it was searched last March.

But Magpale, who heads the Provincial Women’s Commission, said they could not file a murder charge against Apduhan as there is no concrete evidence yet that he was behind the death of the boy.

She said that instead, they will charge the cult leader for violation of the Sanitation Code of the Philippines because of burying human remains outside the legally designated areas.

Magpale is still positive, though, that they will be able to pin down Apduhan for illegal detention.

“Given the number of witnesses, kumpyansa mi nga di ni ma-dismiss ang illegal detention (case). We can convince the judge that (Emma Bocabal Nepomuceno) was really illegally detained against her own will,” she said. The case is being tried before the Toledo City Regional Trial Court.

Magpale said the black and blue bruises in Nepomuceno’s body proved that she was beaten up, contrary to claims that she fell down.

Though the victim swore that she was not illegally detained as she was allowed to go and see her family once in a while although just inside the car, since she could not name who her driver was and what kind of car she was riding on, this belies Nepomuceno’s claim, said Magpale.

“Daghan witnesses willing mo-corroborate. Gikandadaon g’yud na siya, padad-an lang og pagkaon,” the Vice Governor said.

Nepomuceno was allegedly jailed inside Apduhan’s house for the last five and a half years before she was rescued last March. —/NSA (FREEMAN)