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Saturday, October 18, 2003
Girl, 5, gang-raped by 6-year-old kids
By Karlon N. Rama
CEBU -- The parents of a five-year-old girl complained to military officials that their daughter was raped by three six-year-old boys in a public school inside the Armed Forces Central Command reservation in Lahug, Cebu City.
The assault transpired last July yet, but school officials have allegedly not done anything about it, according to reports that reached Assistant City Prosecutor Aida Sanchez.
Sanchez revealed that the child has already been brought to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center for a checkup, which showed she had been assaulted.
The child was also pulled out from school by her parents, who now demand the immediate expulsion of the three boys, lest other kids be similarly victimized.
School officials, however, found the incident "difficult to believe", Sanchez said.
The child's parents approached Maj. Burt Pades of the Judge Advocate General's Office (Jago) to seek help in filing a complaint against the three kids.
The law, however, exempts children below nine years old from any liability arising from a criminal act.
Reports that reached Sanchez said the child was raped inside the comfort room of the public school.
The girl was on her way to relieve herself when the three boys followed her in.
Sanchez said the attack followed archetypal rape scenes in movies or television, prompting her to partly blame the media for the incident.
The rest of her blame landed on the parents.
"The children probably saw something on TV, which their parents didn't care to explain," she said.
Too young
She believes the attack really took place, adding that the child narrated it to her even without having been asked or prodded into doing so.
She said she has also spoken with the girl's mother, who said the girl came home crying and bleeding after that day.
Molesting a minor under 12 years of age constitutes statutory rape and is punishable by death.
However, the Revised Penal Code considers age as an exempting circumstance in criminal liabilities.
Article 12 of the code exempts the insane, children under nine years old and children over nine years old but below 15 who have committed crimes without discernment, from any form of court punishment.
The code says those older than nine but below 15, after having been "adjudged to be criminally irresponsible" and may be committed "to the care of some institution."
It doesn't even talk, however, about counseling for those below nine. Sun.Star Cebu
(October 18, 2003 issue)
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