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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Thursday, March 30, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Was a 16-year-old female student in Fr. Gratian Murray Integrated School in Barangay Granada abused by her male teacher? Police want to know.
The Women and Children Protection Desk (WCPD) of the Bacolod City Police Office is investigating the complaint of the student’s mother that the teacher let her daughter sleep in his house in Charito Heights Subdivision.
Emelyn Pagunsan lodged a similar complaint with the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Division of Bacolod City. She sensed something suspicious was going on between her daughter and the teacher.
Schools Division Superintendent Cynthia Demavivas said they are looking into the complaint.
Pagunsan had her complaint recorded at Police Station 5. Senior Police Officer 4 Arlene Torendon, officer-in-charge of the WCPD, promised a separate and thorough investigation.
Initial investigation into whether or not the female student was sexually abused proved inconclusive. Subjecting the student to a medical examination would be necessary, said Torendon.
Earlier Pagunsan said the teacher admitted her daughter and other students slept in his house.
She said the teacher also sent her husband Roderick a text message asking them to settle the matter and prevent the issue from reaching the DepEd.
Further police investigation will revolve around possible violation of the Republic Act 7610, or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, said Torendon.
For now the WCPD cannot establish what violation the male teacher has committed if any, the police officer said.
Pagunsan said her daughter went to school on March 3, a Friday, but did not return home.
“We had a hard time looking for her. I asked her classmates for her whereabouts. One of them told me my daughter slept in their male teacher’s house in Charito Heights,” she wrote Demavivas in Hiligaynon on March 23.
Pagunsan’s daughter went home on March 6. She admitted sleeping in her teacher’s house with her two classmates but denied doing anything suspicious.
All she said was their teacher “touched” her (“Ginhikap-hikap lang”) and would kiss one of her two classmates on the forehead./PN
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