Prosecutors hold Balamban’s ‘Dios Amahan’ leader, 2 others liable for mysterious death of 14-year-old boy

The man whom followers call “Dios Amahan” in  a mountain village of Balamban town will stand trial for  murder and human trafficking  for the death of a 14-year-old boy in 2011.

The two charges are non-bailable.

Cebu Provincial Prosecutor Pepita Jane Petralba approved the filing of  murder  charges  against Casiano Apduhan, his driver  Victor Fajardo, and his aide, Zacarias Barquio for allegedly conspiring together in the boy’s death.

Apduhan, whose  reputation as a faith healer  has earned him a loyal following in the village, remains in jail  following his arrest last March 26  in barangay Buanoy, Balamban town.

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation   (NBI) raided his villa and found the bones of 14-year-old Angelo Repuelo buried in an underground chamber.

Apduhan  faces a separate charge of qualified trafficking for allegedly recruiting the boy’s  family to work for him without pay.

The cause of death was not established as no autopsy was conducted and only the bones were found.

The boy’s parents said their son  was already dead and wrapped in a bloodstained red blanket when the father was summoned to Apduhan’s house in November 2011 and was told that the “spirit of the boy had departed and entered his (Apduhan’s) body.”

The parents, who worked on the farm, stayed on after that because  they believed Apduhan’s promise that the boy was offered as “padugo” (and offering) for a pot of gold, and would rise from the dead by 2013.

Although no one saw Apduhan and the two men kill the boy, prosecutors  said there was circumstanial evidence, when taken together with other pieces of evidence, form “an unbroken chain”   that leads to the fair and reasonable conclusion that the accused committed the crime.

The three men were the last people seen with the boy before his death, according to the victim’s mother.

“The identification of a malefactor, to be positive and sufficient for conviction, does not always require direct evidence from an eyewitness; otherwise no conviction will be possible in crimes where there are no eyewitnesses,” said a joint resolution quoting a 2013 decision by Chief Justice Sereno.

A charge of child abuse was dismissed to give way to the graver charge of murder.

The case resolution was penned by   Assistant Provincial Prosecutors Ludovico Cutaran and Venice Balansag.

They said direct evidence of the commission of a crime “is not the only matrix wherefrom a trial court may draw its conclusion and finding of guilt.”

“Indeed, trustworthy circumstantial evidence can equally confirm the identification and overcome the constitutionally presumed innocence of the accused,” the two prosecutors explained.

CAPTIVE WOMAN
Apduhan is accused in another court case of  illegal possesion of firearms and serious illegal detention for allegedly keeping  33-year-old Emma Nepomuceno, who was rescued by NBI agents from the house.

The woman  in open court later denied she was a victim and said she willingly stayed in Apduhan’s  house for five years because she was escaping a troubled marriage.

With this, Apduhan recently asked the court to release him on bail from the Toledo City Jail, saying  the evidence against him was weak.

Judge Hermes Montero of the Toledo City Regional Trial Court Branch 59 will hear his  petition for bail on Oct. 7 and 21.

The two cases against Apduhan stemmed from a March 14 letter of Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale  asking the NBI to act on two cases of missing persons, the boy and the woman.

Heddah Largo, a consultant of the Provincial Women’s Commission (PWC), was elated when she learned that Apduhan was  indicted on charges of murder and qualified trafficking.

“I believe in our justice system. Moreso, I believe we have a good case. Our evidence is  intact and airtight. I believe and hope that in the end, justice will be served,” said Largo in a text message to Cebu Daily News.

The PWC, under Vice Governor  Magpale, assisted the family of the slain boy and Nepomuceno, an unhappy housewife estranged from her husband.

In his affidavit, the boy’s father Eleuterio Repuella said Apduhan  went to their residence in the City of Naga  in 2011 and  convinced them that the world was about to end.

On Apduhan’s advice, they sold their  livestock and other belongings and gave  the proceeds to the cult leader, left their home and went to live in “Tatay Loloy’s” mountain villa in Balamban town.

The  family lived in the compound of Apduhan from 2001 to 2014. Repuella said he tilled the ricefield while his wife did  household chores.

Their son Angelo,  worked as a storekeeper. The family was not paid for their services.

SACRIFICIAL OFFERING

The father said his son was made a sacrificial offering or “padugo”  by  Apduhan  but didn’t know exactly how the  boy died.

While waiting for their son’s resurrection, Repuella said he and his wife continued to serve Apduhan in the farm without  pay.  He said Apduhan  threatened to kill them if they would tell anybody about what happened to their son.

When 2013 came and the prophesy that their son  would rise from the dead never happened, the parents decided to leave Balamban.

In his counter-affidavit, Apduhan denied killing the boy.

Apduhan said the boy whose remains were found in a 50-foot-deep tunnel under his house in Balamban town had already been suffering from an undiagnosed illness before his death. He described Angelo as “skinny-thin, pale, and sickly.”

Apduhan said the boy’s parents voluntarily brought Angelo to his residence to be cured but the boy  eventually succumbed to his illness, which was not specified.

Apduhan  gave the alibi that he was  in Negros Oriental when the boy died. Prosecutors set aside Apduhan’s defense and said “The confluence of the foregoing circismtances excites the belief that a crime of murder, qualified by treachery, has been committed. “

Apduhan and companions have 15 days to contest the ruling.