Cult becomes a victim of its own kindness

CEBU — The controversial Salva Me cult in Buhisan is in the news again, this time claiming to be a victim of its own kindness.

The group, whose full name is Salva Me Pater Omnis Oculus Meus and whose members live in caves and tree houses in a place incidentally called Sitio Nazareth, lost valuables to two strangers it had taken into its fold out of pity.

Alfredo Verano, the cult’s leader who is called "Daddy Divine" by his followers, took in a man and a teenage girl last Jan. 9 after they had been befriended by some of his followers who came upon them on a sidewalk along V. Gullas street looking hungry and destitute.

Manuel Miro, a representative of the cult, reported to the police Saturday morning that they discovered the missing valuables at the same time that the two strangers disappeared last Friday morning.

Miro told policemen at the Punta Princesa station that the man, a certain Alberto Apolinario, and the 16-year-old girl both claimed to have come from Mindanao.

The two reportedly said they had no place to stay, prompting the cult members to visit them over several days to bring them food and chat with them.

The cult gave them shelter for two weeks, until last Friday when they vanished, carting away, as the group claimed, a Nokia 3410 cellphone, a camera worth P16,800, two speakers worth P2,600, 10 flourescent lamps and 10 light bulbs.

The cult also reported losing an intercom, a pair of gold earrings, a gold necklace, a soldering iron, a casette recorder, two amplifiers, tool sets and a number of smaller articles and implements.

Miro could not give a value for their total losses, saying most of the missing items were brand new and recently donated by a cult member who is now in Australia.

But Punta Princesa police chief Eliseo Castronuevo has some doubts about the veracity of the cult’s claims, asking how the two escaped unnoticed given the number of valuables supposedly stolen.

The cult made the news exactly a year ago when residents of Buhisan demanded that it be evicted, claiming that Verano had been engaging in illegal treasure hunting and had been treating his female members as sex slaves. — Freeman News Service