‘Abusive’ parents jailed

CEBU, Philippines - A charge for violating Republic Act 7610 (Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act) was filed yesterday against a couple who chained and locked their children in their home in Dumanjug town.

The children, ages five and three, are now in the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) office in Dumanjug.

In an interview with The FREEMAN at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor's Office, the mother admitted chaining the kids, but said it was her and her live-in partner's way of disciplining them.

She also owned up to hitting her eldest daughter, allegedly because she kept on running around the house and disturbing them, while the younger daughter improperly disposed her waste inside their house.

In their affidavits, DSWD-Dumanjug personnel and the arresting officers detailed how they found the children after responding to a call from the office of the town mayor.

Last Wednesday, a certain Arnel Famor called Dumanjug police alleging that there were two children who were chained and locked by their mother and their stepfather.

The FREEMAN is withholding the names of the suspects and their address to protect the identities of the children.

PO3 Dionisio Tagupa, who received the call, immediately responded with other policemen and DSWD-Dumanjug personnel to rescue the children.

Tagupa said the three-year-old girl had cuts in her ear that she said she were inflicted by her stepfather using a pair of long nose pliers.  The other child also had injuries in her leg.

Medical certificates attached to the information the police filed stated that while the five-year-old victim had no physical injuries at the time of examination, she had "multiple healed linear scars at the lower extremities."

The younger sister, on the other hand, had "multiple injuries without hematoma, but historically had multiple abrasions on the different parts of the body and multiple hematomas at the upper extremities."

The abused children were first brought to the Dumanjug Municipal Health Office, but because there were no doctors to examine them, they were brought to the Barili District Hospital.

The 21-year-old mother said her live-in partner, a 19-year-old construction worker, was also just trying to discipline the children, whom she said no longer took heed of her.

She said the children were kept chained and locked inside the house because they would go out by themselves and without permission to look for food.

The mother, who is seven months pregnant, said her husband left while she was pregnant with her second child "to find another woman better than her."-/RHM (FREEMAN)