Casiano “Tatay Loloy” Apduhan. (CDN PHOTO)
Balamban cult leader Casiano “Tatay Loloy” Apduhan was disappointed, his arraignment for serious illegal detention was moved to August 12 after his lawyer failed to show up yesterday.
When his case was called, Judge Hermes Montero of the Regional Trial Court of Toledo City asked Apduhan if he was willing to be arraigned with the help of another lawyer because his legal counsel Danilo Yap was absent. But the accused and his family preferred to be assisted by their own counsel who was in Cebu City attending another hearing.
“Layo pa kaayo na ang Aug. 12. Pero unsaon wala man koy mahimo. (Aug. 12 is still very far. But what else can I do?),” he told reporters as he went out of the courtroom.
In a phone interview, Yap said he had to attend to another case with the RTC Branch 58 in Cebu City.
“What happened was just a case of conflict of schedules. It was suppposedly alright if another lawyer assisted him (Apduhan) for purposes of arraignment only, just to keep the case moving,” the lawyer told CDN.
He is accused of illegally detaining 33-year-old Emma Nepomuceno inside his villa in Balamban town for over five years.
Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided Apduhan’s house on March 26 and rescued Nepomuceno.
They also found the bones and decomposing remains of a 14-year-old boy in a deep pit excavated inside the two-story house.
Separate charges of murder, child abuse, and human trafficking were filed against Apduhan./ USJ-R Masscom Intern Maeine Mosquite
Related Stories:
Cult member ‘has Stockholm Syndrome’
NBI agents arrest suspected cult leader
Ex-member of cult says his 14-year-old son was offered ‘as a sacrifice’ in order to find gold