Relative raped us, 4 girls say

Monday, June 27, 2011

CEBU CITY -- Four girls accused a 64-year-old relative of rape and child abuse, in a case now being investigated by the Carcar City police, with the Provincial Women’s Commission (PWC) coming in to help the children.

The allegations are still being verified, nearly a month after the abuse supposedly happened.

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Carcar Police Station Chief Inspector Teodulfo Manatad II said the minors are 2, 7, 8 and 11, and that the case is about to be filed against their relative.

Initial reports said the relative was a grandfather, but that has yet to be confirmed.

The mother went to the PWC, saying the man lured the children to him by offering them some tambis or water apples.

Hedda Largo, gender and development (GAD) officer at the Capitol, said she has yet to speak with three of the children, the police and barangay officials in Carcar.

Largo said the Carcar police initially handled the case but that the parents may have gotten tired of waiting for results.

Last Friday afternoon, a grandfather of one of the supposed victims went to the PWC and talked to Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, who co-chairs the commission with Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.

Magpale said the supposed victims were three sisters and a cousin. It was the cousin's grandfather who came to PWC for help.

The PWC will call for a case conference on June 30, summoning all the agencies involved.

The police are investigating the case, while the barangay’s Lupon Tagapamayapa initially handled the complaint. The social welfare office is monitoring the girls.

On July 7, the girls are scheduled to undergo psychological evaluation.

As this developed, anti-trafficking advocates have called for more vigilance among village officials against cybersex and other forms of child exploitation.

Lawyer Ani Saguisag, child protection specialist of the United Nations Children’s Fund, expressed alarm over the recent incident of cybersex in Cordova town, where seven children were rescued by authorities.

“It’s quite alarming, considering that (cybersex is) starting to appear as a cottage industry,” Saguisag said in a press conference last Friday.

Andrey Sawchenko, national director of the International Justice Mission, stressed the importance of anti-child trafficking advocacy at the barangay level.

“There’ll be a direct link between deterrent of this crime and LGU (local government units’) response,” he said.

IJM is an international human rights agency that secures justice for slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of oppression.

Saguisag said efforts against child trafficking should be sustained, adding that officials should not just act on the issue when incidents like that in Cordova get exposed.

The seven children, six of whom are siblings, were rescued and turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Central Visayas last June 1, after authorities caught their parents allegedly presenting them naked in front of a computer-mounted camera inside their house. 

Social workers want to transfer the children as soon as possible to a licensed welfare agency that can provide substitute parenting for them.

“Child pornography has always been a problem in the Philippines and when you look at the history, you can actually trace it back up to the 1970s,” said Saguisag.

She said exploiting a child nowadays is easier and cheaper for traffickers with technology.

“I think the situation is serious enough that we don’t really need any statistics because one child trafficked is more than enough for us to act,” Saguisag added.

According to IJM, the availability of minors for commercial sex in Metro Cebu has decreased by 79 percent since 2006.

Last 2007, IJM launched Project Lantern, a campaign against sex trafficking and commercial sex exploitation of children in Metro Cebu.

Since then, it has helped in the rescue of 259 victims of trafficking crimes, and 77 suspects have been arrested.

It recently held a songwriting competition that featured songs aimed at raising public awareness against human trafficking. (DSM/OCP/RSB/Sun.Star Cebu)