Our parents forced us to join gang, say young ATM thieves

CEBU CITY - The two street kids earlier arrested for stealing cash from automated teller machines (ATMs) in the city's downtown and uptown areas may have found a shelter they can call home.

The two streetchildren told officials of the Community Scouts Youth Guidance Center that they were forced by their parents to join a syndicate preying on ATMs.

The "community scouts" are planning to keep the children and may send them to school if their allegations against their parents are confirmed.

Police turned over the two boys, aged 10 and 13, to the center last Thursday night after they were again caught attempting to steal cash from the ATM of the Bank of Philippine Islands along Gen. Maxilom Avenue.

They were earlier caught by Barangay Sto. Niño tanods removing money from a PCI Bank ATM near the Centerpoint Hotel along Osmeña Boulevard.

However, the two boys, who reportedly belong to a syndicate led by an 18-year-old, escaped after the tanods turned them over to the Fuente police station.

The boys told the center's officials and reporters that they were forced to join the gang because their parents allegedly maltreated them.

The 10-year-old boy, a resident of Barangay Ermita, said his father, known in the locality as "Boy Tigre," electrocuted him whenever he committed mistakes.

"He orders me to stand on a basin with water. Then, with the aid of two sticks, puts a live wire in the basin," he tearfully recalled.

He said his father had done this to him twice when he refused to go with the gang.

On the other hand, the 13-year-old boy, who hails from San Vicente, Daanbantayan, said his father beat him up everytime he committed a mistake or refused to go with the gang of ATM thieves.

He showed scars on his left leg, claiming these were from lacerations from his father's beatings.

The center's operations officer, Bill Felisan, said they will ask social workers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development to investigate the allegations of the two minors. If confirmed, he said charges of grave child abuse will be filed against their parents. -