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Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Lawyers to sue police for freeing Koreans
By Karlon N. Rama
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Four lawyers—two of them with the Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor—are filing charges against two police officials for the alleged unauthorized release of two Koreans arrested for child abuse last Friday night.
Ramsey Quijano, Gloria Labitad, Ivy Macias and Jasmine Despi met with Provincial Prosecutor Jane Petralba and Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo yesterday afternoon and narrated the circumstances behind the arrest, done at the Club Royale Bar and Restaurant on Gorordo Ave. and the subsequent release.
Attacked
They identified the two police officials as Senior Insp. George Ylanan of the Vice Control Section and Chief Insp. Dirkie Galle-poso Sorronda of the dental office of the Regional Health Unit, based inside Campo Sotero Cabahug in Cebu City.
Sorronda earlier claim-ed that he was attacked by an unidentified man 5-feet-10-inches tall, stout and fair-skinned inside Camp Sotero Cabahug 12:30 a.m. Saturday over an incident involving Koreans but did not elaborate.
Assistant City Prosecutor Despi, other than being female, fits the description but denies having hit anybody. Quijano was the only guy in the group and doesn’t fit the description.
“That’s a lie. They are making it up. They brought up this issue to cover up the fact that they released two Koreans who they arrested in the act of violating the child abuse law,” said Macias during the meeting.
Issue
The issue, according to Macias, is how the two Koreans were caught inside the bar in the company of two under-aged girls who were made to drink alcoholic beverages, in violation of provisions of Republic Act (RA) 7610.
Article 6, Section 10(b) of the act states: “Any person who shall keep or have in his company a minor, twelve years or under or who is 10 years or more his junior in any public or private place, hotel, motel, beer joint, discotheque, cabaret, pension house, sauna or massage parlor, beach and/or other tourist resort or similar places shall suffer the penalty of prision mayor in its maximum period and a fine of not less than P50,000.
And the cover-up is to hide how Ylanan, allegedly upon the recommendation of Sorronda, released the two Koreans without even bothering to obtain their names, addresses and passport numbers for further verification.
“They want to make this into something personal between us by making it appear that we attacked them. Nothing of that sort happened,” Macias said.
Carillo, interviewed after the meeting, said he will separately bring the matter to the attention of the Cebu City Council. He heads the committee on social services.
Carillo, a lawyer, also said that the implementing rules and regulations involving the arrest of persons for child-abuse related offenses require the police to inform the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) within 48 hours and to coordinate all actions with the agency.
“In this case, the subjects were already released and the DSWD was still not informed about what happened,” Carillo said. A DSWD official, Mary Jane Borlaos, was present during yesterday’s meeting.
Macias, Despi and Labitad said they were at Club Royale Friday night and met with Quijano and the two others. They had attended a seminar on child abuse earlier that day and were whiling away the time to catch an early morning flight to Davao.
It was while having dinner that they noticed two Koreans, accompanied by two very young local girls, come in. It was difficult not to notice, they said, as the Koreans displayed affection openly.
“The first thing I noticed was that the girls looked very young. We just observed them for a few minutes and when one of the girls went to the comfort room, I followed her to have a closer look. She didn’t look a day older than 15,” Macias said.
She took photos of the Koreans and their partners using the camera feature on her mobile phone.
It was at this point that Quijano called up Cebu City Councilor Jose Daluz for assistance. Daluz, for his part, assured Quijano that he will send over “Cebu City’s finest.”
Minutes later, Ylanan and three other uniformed men arrived at the bar and took the two Koreans and their partners into custody.
But, not more than half an hour after, the group came back, with the two Koreans allegedly openly displaying aggression towards them for having been inconvenienced.
“We then called the DSWD (Borlas) and reported the matter but the Koreans left,” Macias said.
Quijano said he called up Daluz and was informed that the two were released upon Ylanan’s orders because a police dentist cleared the two girls as being of legal age.
They then went to Campo Sotero Cabahug and proceeded directly to the Cebu City Police Office Women’s Desk where they were surprised to learn that Ylanan and other police officers didn’t even get the names of the foreigners.
“If they are Cebu City’s finest, I’ll go kill myself,” Despi said.
The group proceeded to the dental services clinic and met Sorronda who “appeared drunk.”
The lawyers asked to inspect the documentation on the dental exam done on the two women but were not given any.
They were told that they had to submit a letter-request first.
Daluz and fellow City Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. then arrived and intervened. Pe even directed that Sorronda undergo a liquor test.
“What happened was highly irregular. We will file a case against them,” Macias said, speaking for the group.
“We will also file a separate case against Sorronda and take away his license,” she said.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 18, 2006 issue)
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