MANILA, Philippines - A 13-year-old girl’s alleged affair with her school’s 30-year-old teacher would have remained a secret if her mother had not decided to clean her room last Monday.
“The mother went to the girl’s room on Monday morning maybe just to clean it up but instead saw the diary and read the entries written by her daughter,” Chief Inspector Cherry Lou Donato, who heads the General Investigation Section of the Quezon City Police District-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, said yesterday.
Donato said in a journal entry dated Feb. 15, the girl wrote about the start of her affair with Randolph Sanchez, scoutmaster and commandant at the Jubilee Christian Academy on E. Rodriguez Sr. Avenue, where the girl is a seventh-grade student.
The other entries were the girl’s accounts of her teacher allegedly approaching her along school corridors and their intimate moments together in campus.
Donato said it appeared that the girl was introduced to Sanchez through a friend, and she was not under the suspect’s supervision.
The girl’s mother found the diary Monday morning and filed a complaint with the police, who went to the school to question the teacher.
“When we went there at noon on Monday, he (Sanchez) was not on campus. We even went to his house in San Andres Bukid (in Manila) but he was also not there. He must have been tipped off and has gone into hiding,” Donato told The STAR.
She said Sanchez could be charged with child abuse and sexual harassment if the parents decide to sue him.
When asked to comment, Jomer Dujernia, the school’s human resources department head, confirmed Sanchez has been suspended after school officials were informed about the allegations.
Dujernia said the school does not want to issue any further statement at the moment.
Donato said the girl’s parents sought assistance from authorities not only because they wanted to put a stop to the affair between their daughter and the teacher but also for other parents or students to come out if they had the same experience with Sanchez.
“The parents suspect that the teacher may have had affairs with other students apart from their daughter,” Donato said.