Parents of rape victim to sue suspect's former employer

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – The parents of an underaged rape victim of a former professor arrested recently in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, are filing today a P30-million damage suit against the suspect’s former employer, Holy Angel University (HAU) here, as well as three university officials and another professor.

Lawyer Jeffrey Zarate, counsel for the victim’s father who asked not to be named to protect his daughter’s identity, said the civil case to be filed was in relation to the respondents’ failure to check on the background of suspected rapist Arnell Atienza Ocampo, 50, who already had a record of being dismissed from another school also for alleged sexual harassment.

Ocampo is set to be deported from Saudi Arabia this week to face 32 counts of rape before the Regional Trial Court here. He was arrested in Jeddah the other Friday after fleeing there over a year ago despite a hold departure order against him. The victim was his student at the HAU when the alleged rapes occurred in 2006.

“It is a damage suit being sought by the family of the victim for the HAU’s failure to check on the background of Ocampo. When the suspect sought to teach at the university, there already was a record of him being dismissed in another school in Magalang for sexual harassment,” Zarate said.

Zarate said the rapes could not have occurred had the HAU examined the background of Ocampo. “What happened to the underaged victim and her family could have been prevented had the university exercised some diligence in taking in applicants for its teaching force,” he added.

The STAR sought reaction from HAU but one of its officials said the university would issue a statement only after receiving a formal copy of the civil case seeking a P30-million damage compensation.

Apart from HAU, the respondents in the civil suit also include HAU president Arlyn Villanueva, human resources chief Angelita Ayson, registrar Jesus Panlilio, and Prof. Leandro Sanchez.

The victim’s father said Panlilio was the chairman of HAU’s anti-sexual harassment board, while Sanchez allegedly participated in the coverup of the case against Ocampo.

“I filed an administrative complaint against Ocampo at HAU on Sept 18, 2008. He was suspended only for three months. He was back teaching on Feb. 7, 2009,” said the father who initiated the complaint.

Six days later, the father filed a criminal case against Ocampo before the DOJ.

The father alleged that two days after he filed the administrative complaint, he was at one time barred from entering the university while Ocampo, who then was already placed under preventive suspension, was allowed within the campus. He said university officials failed to cite reasons for his being barred.

He also recalled that during the hearing of HAU’s anti-sexual harassment board on the administrative complaint. His daughter was allegedly held for four hours at the office of the university president and that he and his wife was prevented access to her for the duration.

“Two days after the hearing, I wrote the university and sought for another hearing on the case, but I was denied. Thirty days after the hearing, the board suspended Ocampo only for three months,” he said.

The father also claimed that at one time after he filed the administrative complaint, Sanchez, who was a member of the board probing the administrative complaint, arranged for a meeting in his office between Ocampo, who was already under preventive suspension, and his alleged victim.

“My daughter was told not to confess anything and act as if nothing happened. She felt intimidated and trapped,” the father also recalled.

The father noted that it was only after he filed a court case against Ocampo that HAU dismissed him on March 27, 2009. The following day, Ocampo was able to flee to Jeddah despite a hold departure order issued against him.

DOJ records show that despite his having fled the country, Ocampo was indicted in November 2009 with 32 counts of rape. Five arrest warrants, including two that barred bail, were issued by Angeles City Regional Trial Court judgeAngelica Paras-Quiambao.

Last January, the NBI-Interpol placed Ocampo in international red list that classified the suspect as a wanted figutive all over the world. Last April 28, the Department of Foreign Affairs cancelled his passport, thus making him an illegal alien in Jeddah.