Cult leader accused of turning children into sex slaves, lawmakers say

Doomsday cult leader who says he is reincarnation of Jesus is turning 1,500 children into sex slaves on remote Philippines island, lawmakers say

• Jey Rence B Quilario was this week accused of heading a doomsday cult 

Clad in a white suit with gold watch and aviator sunglasses, the leader of quasi-religious cult Omega de Salonera looks more pop star than a Messiah.

But Jey Rence B Quilario was this week accused of heading a doomsday cult where ‘rape, sexual violence, child abuse, forced marriage was perpetrated on minors’.

Quilario, who claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus, was named using congressional privilege as well as his group in connection to ‘widespread exploitation’.

And Save the Children has urged the Filipino government to take immediate action to free the estimated 1,500 children held by the cult on a remote island.

On Monday the chairman of the senate committee on women and children senator Risa Hontiveros said: ‘This is a harrowing story of rape, sexual violence, child abuse, forced marriage perpetrated on minors by a cult in the municipality of Socorro, Surigao del Norte.

‘We are talking about over a thousand young people in the hands of a deceitful, cruel, and abusive cult… real children are in danger, and time is of the essence. We cannot, we must not, look away.’

Jey Rence B Quilario was this week accused of heading a doomsday cult where ‘rape, sexual violence, child abuse, forced marriage was perpetrated on minors’.

News of the situation prompted Save the Children to step in on Friday to protect the youngsters

Another senator Ronald Dela Rosa accused the group’s leaders of using cult members as ‘human shields’, the Telegraph reports.

He accused the group of running a meth lab in an underground bunker near to where Quilario and fellow leaders live.

News of the situation prompted Save the Children to step in on Friday to protect the youngsters.

Alberto Muyot, chief executive of the organisation’s Philippines branch, said: ‘We urgently call upon the government, specifically our law enforcement agencies, to conduct immediate and thorough investigations into these incidents.

‘Secure the protection of the affected children, and bring the perpetrators to justice.’ 

After an earthquake rocked the region, the cult exploited the natural disaster to lure thousands to its cause in its mountain lair

Senator Hontiveros told how a 15-year-old, known as Chloe, was forced into a marriage by Quilario to marry a 21-year-old man when she was just 13.

She claimed he locked her in a room with her new husband and told him ‘he had the right to rape her’.

Local authorities have also given information alleging underage girls were being forced to have sex with Quilario.

The cult started off as a civic organisation called Socorro Bayanihan Services.

But in 2017 it transformed into a quasi-religious outfit calling itself Omega de Salonera.

Then after an earthquake rocked the region, it exploited this to lure thousands to its cause in its mountain lair, according to the claims made by congressional members.

The cult said joining it was the way to avoid the impending threat of eternal damnation.

Socorro Bayanihan Services has categorically denied all of the accusations.

It says that the children making the claims have made them up.

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