The boy who was found buried in a 50-foot pit under the house of a cult leader in Balamban town was finally given a proper burial as his remains were interred in a public cemetery in Naga town yesterday.
Family and friends of Angelo Repuela joined his parents, Eleuterio and Remegia, in the funeral held two years after his death.
Angelo’s skeletal remains were found wrapped in a blanket and buried in a niche in the 50-foot deep tunnel dug under the house of Casiano “Tatay Loloy” Apduhan, suspected leader of a cult known as “Dios Amahan”.
According to a joint affidavit of arrest executed by the National Bureau of Investigation and the Provincial Women’s Commission, the parents did not know the real cause of the boy’s death. “It was just known to them that their son was offered as sacrifice for the bulawan and by that was assured by a promise from their ‘Diyos Amahan’ of their son’s being brought back to life in the year 2013 which never happened,” the affidavit said.
Apduhan’s followers believe he can heal the sick and bring the dead back to life.
Ritchie Fajardo, 19, and a former cult member, said in his affidavit that the boy died in the middle of 2012. He said he, together with the boy’s father and cult member, Victor Fajardo were the ones who entombed the corpse inside the tunnel upon the instruction of Tatay Loloy.
Apduhan was charged last week with serious illegal detention and illegal possession of firearms at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors Office.
The boy’s father, Eleuterio, grew disillusioned with the group and left its fold last year, said he will seek justice for the death of his son. “I hope that justice will be served. He fooled us. I hope that he will be put in jail for all that he has done,” he told Cebu Daily News.
Eleuterio said he and his family were members of the cult when it was still led by Apduhan’s parents, who were kind to them.
However, things changed when Apduhan took over the cult’s leadership.
He said that Apduhan whom they considered the “Dios Amahan” was demanding, strict, and abusive.
Despite this, he said the family never complained because they were raised to believe that he was a god.
END OF WORLD
In 2012, Apduhan allegedly told his followers that the world was going to end. “He told us to sell all our properties, our land, and our animals. He invited us to live with them in Balamban. Because we wanted to be saved, we did everything he said,” said Tirio.
They moved into Apduhan’s house where they stayed in a room. After a few days, Eleuterio was allegedly sent to tend to the cult leader’s farm. He was later assigned to man Apduhans’ store in barangay Arpili.
He said he complied with all of Apduhan’s orders and left his wife, Remigia and son, Angelo, behind in Apduhan’s house.
Remegia served as Apduhan’s servant and was assigned to cook meals and clean the house. Angelo, on the other hand, was sent to help in tending the store.
Eleuterio recalled that it was a Wednesday night when he was fetched from the farm by cult members and brought to the villa. “They told me that Tatay Loloy had a mission for me,” he said. Upon reaching Apduhan’s house, he was told that his son was dead. “He said that the spirit was finally freed. I didn’t understand what he was saying until he brought me to a room where I saw the lifeless body of my son.”
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