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Lapu-Lapu City police plans to exhume the remains of the elderly woman who was reportedly mauled to death by a cult of Sto. Niño devotees in sitio Datag, barangay Maribago, Lapu-Lapu city recently.
Lapu-Lapu City police director Senior Supt. Mariano Natuel Jr. said they will ask the City Health Office to exhume the remains of Paulina Arong who is buried in the municipal cemetery in the area.
Natuel, who visited the cult’s compound yesterday, also said the cult is willing to cooperate with police in its investigation into the incident.
Earlier Lapu-Lapu City social welfare staffers said they cannot conclude that the group of devotees fit the description of a cult.
“They are preferably called faith healers man based sa akong pag-adto sa lugar(based on my visit to the place),” social worker Leticia Patalinghug said yesterday.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza visited the Mactan community hospital yesterday to talk with the Traya family who accused the cult of mauling them on suspicion they were possessed by demons.
During the hospital visit Radaza reiterated his order to Natuel to investigate the case.
Patalinghug said she interviewed some persons who were treated by the cult and they all said they were not hurt by the group.
“They all said they came on their own free will, voluntary ba,” she said.
Still Patalinghug said she has yet to talk with the Traya family and any other victims.
She also said interviews with residents and some cult patrons did not show that the Traya family were forcibly detained inside the chapel at the cult’s compound.
“They went there on their own free will,” she said. Paulina Arong is a sister of Erlinda Traya, one of the family members.
Lapu-Lapu City Legal Officer Michael Dignos said financial and legal assistance to the Traya family will depend on the final report of the social welfare’s office.
Meanwhile Natuel said he was told by the Traya family of their intentions to file charges as soon as they recover from their injuries.
Natuel said more than 30 cult members from Sta. Rosa, Olango Island arrived in the mainland to lend their support in the wake of the Traya family’s case.
Natuel said the group’s spokesperson Sosimo Umpad denied the Traya family’s accusations and told him the family supposedly approached them for healing.
Natuel said Sosimo claimed that Erlinda Traya told him that she was suffering from an unexplained ailment.
Natuel said the cult showed him their chapel and the place where the Traya family claimed they were detained in.
He said he saw a Sto. Niño image in the altar and assorted bottles of water and oil.
The cult also assured him their willingness to cooperate in the police investigation.
The Lapu-Lapu city police official said four police personnel and ronda tanods to patrol the barangay on a 24-hour basis.
Natuel also said any autopsy on Arong’s remains will be useless unless someone files a complaint to their office.
Compounding the problem, he said, is the absence of witnesses that would testify for the Arong and the Traya families.
The cult was founded by a certain Paterno Baring 35 years ago in Olango Island.
Its members are from the island and are mostly relatives.
There are at least 10 cult members in the mainland.
The members are Sto. Niño devotees who attend mass every first Friday of the month at the Basilica Del Sto. Nino church.
For his part, Radaza said he will visit the cult’s compound to talk with the members.
Radaza said Erlinda Traya told him that she was forced to leave her livelihood as a result of the cult’s beating. With reports from Correspondents Carinne M. Asutilla and Justin Anjuli K. Vestil
