Bacolod Teacher gets 6-year Imprisonment for Child Abuse

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines - — A female public school teacher here was sentenced to six
years of imprisonment after the court found her guilty of child abuse for maltreating her male
student eight years ago.

The mathematics teacher, whose name and school were withheld as the case involves a minor,
was also sentenced to a six-month suspension after the parents of the student also filed at the
DepEd administrative charges for grave misconduct against her.

Court records said the complainant, then 9 years old, told the court that about 4 p.m. on February
17, 2005, the teacher asked him and his two classmates to stay in their classroom for a remedial
class in Mathematics, in preparation for the Regional Achievement Examination. He said the
teacher asked him to solve a math problem and because he was short, he pulled a chair and stood
on it to answer the problem on the board. However, when he failed to solve the problem, he said
the teacher pulled him by the hair, and banged his head on the blackboard.

He added that the teacher kicked him in the back of his knee, causing him to topple over the
chair he was standing on.

The complainant’s parents learned what happened to him when he arrived home crying and with
a swelling forehead.

In her defense, the teacher said she only shouted at the student, and that he fell from the chair
while he was solving the math problem.

Bacolod Regional Trial Court Branch 41 Judge Ray Alan Drilon, in a decision announced
Tuesday, however said the teacher’s claim that she only shouted at the complainant and the
injuries suffered by the pupil could have been caused by his unexplained fall from the chair, is
too farfetched in the light of the unassailable evidence presented by the prosecution.

The statements made by the complainant were consistent and there was no evidence that the
child made up stories to falsely charge his teacher, Drilon added. (FREEMAN)
 Male Student Files Case vs Teacher
CEBU, Philippines - For allegedly molesting his student, a private university teacher is facing
charges before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.

The complaint filed by a 17-year-old student states that his male teacher sexually abused him
against his will.

He said he tried to resist when his teacher forced him to do indecent and lascivious acts normally
done by couples, but the teacher was much stronger and bigger than he.

He also gave in “for fear that if I would not submit to his lewd desires he might fail me in the
subjects he was handling and might cause me to be kicked out, ,” the affidavit reads.

The student said he “cried and begged” the respondent to stop but the latter did not listen.

The Freeman is withholding the names of the complainant, the respondent and the school
pending their comments.

The complainant was one of the students of a school set up by a nongovernment organization for
“underprivileged young people.” He was enrolled for a 3-year training for System and Network
or Software Development and Dual Training System in accordance with the agreement entered
into by the organization and the school.

In his complaint, he said the respondent was his teacher for System and Network Administration,
System Securities and Operating Systems.

He noticed that the respondent was “very close” to his students especially the male students.

“…I never thought that his effort of being close to us was his way of advancing his lewd
designs,” the affidavit reads.

During their Christmas break in 2011, he said respondent called him through the mobile phone
and asked if he was free to go to a mall. In there, he said, the respondent brought him a pair of
jeans and a shirt. Then he was taken by the respondent to his boarding house in Labangon, Cebu
City.

“That when I saw his desktop computer inside his room, I asked permission from him to use the
same, to which he acceded. That while I was using his computer, respondent approached me and
to my surprise, begged me while his right hand was slowly sliding towards my private part…and
wanted to remove my short pants,” he narrated.

He said respondent succeeded his sexual desire despite his objections. After that incident, he said
he was told by the latter not to tell his other classmates.
 Before he left, he said he was brought by the respondent to a fast food chain and was given
P200 to buy load.

The complainant said he thought that incident won’t happen again but he was wrong after he was
invited by the respondent to visit his classmate in Dalaguete, Cebu.

“That I was very hesitant and afraid to go with respondent, but due to my great fear that I might
fail in the subjects he was handling if I would refuse to go with him, I agreed to go with him in
Dalaguete with the hope that he will not anymore sexually abuse me,” he said.

He heard reports that there was a former student who was kicked out after he failed in the
subjects handled by the respondent. The former student reportedly refused to accept the advances
of the respondent.

The complainant said because of the revelation made by the former student to one of the
educators about his “horrifying experience” with the respondent, he gained courage to reveal his
experience too and refused to the invitation of respondent sometime in January 2013. His other
classmates also revealed their experiences in the hands of the respondent.

To support his case, the general manager of the group executed an affidavit against the
respondent for a violation of Section 5(b) and 10(a) of Republic Act 7610 or child abuse, Article
336 of the Revised Penal Code or acts of lasciviousness and RA 7877 or the anti-sexual
harassment act. (FREEMAN)
 Professor Loses Libel Case vs Student
BAGUIO CITY—It was a case of the student knowing better than the teacher.

The editor of a campus newspaper on Thursday was acquitted by a court here of a libel charge
filed by a journalism professor of the University of the Philippines Baguio.

Jesusa Paquibot, editor of the “Outcrop,” was sued in 2012 by journalism professor Ma. Rina
Locsin-Afable, who claimed that her reputation was attacked by a parody column, “Yupiang
Yupi,” in the paper.

But Judge Cecilia Corazon Dulay-Archog, of the Baguio Regional Trial Court Branch 6, said
Afable failed to prove that the article was malicious and defamatory, stressing that it made no
direct reference to the professor.

“Had private respondent (Afable) not revealed that she was the person referred to in the said
column, the public would have remained unaware of her identity,” Archog said in her decision.

The column was a satirical discourse about a woman, identified as “Raulo Locaret,” who
demanded “maximum silence” on classroom premises.

Afable attributed the column’s subject matter to a July 19, 2011 incident where she admonished
students outside her classroom who were meeting for a rally and who, she said, were disrupting
her class.

Fellow professors and some students said the article was about Afable. One of the teachers
claimed that the column also attacked the reputation of Afable’s late father, newspaper publisher
and editor Raul Locsin.

Paquibot said the column “centered on a message regarding freedom of expression and the right
of students to exercise it.” She said the libel complaint left a “chilling effect” on the student
paper at the time.
Veteran journalist and former Business World publisher Vergel Santos testified for Paquibot,
saying the column was a parody which “portrayed a situation without causing specific personal
harm.”

“A conviction for libel where the private complainant is a public figure must be based on
evidence presented which proves accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt that the libelous
statements were made or published with actual malice,” Archog said. “The prosecution failed to
prove actual malice in the instant case.”

Citing a 2003 Supreme Court ruling, Archog also said hurt feelings and offended sensibilities
were insufficient “to create a cause of action for defamation.” Kimberlie Quitasol, Inquirer
Northern Luzon