Jason Gutierrez/BenarNews
Police in the southern Philippines freed seven tribal leaders, students and teachers on Friday after prosecutors dropped charges against the group who were arrested three months ago for allegedly training children as combatants for communist rebels, their lawyer said.
The seven tribespeople had been charged with kidnapping, human trafficking and other offenses after their arrest during a police raid on Feb. 15 at a makeshift school they had set up at the University of San Carlos, a church-run campus in central Cebu City.
“All told, it appears that there is insufficient evidence to support any of the alleged crimes of kidnapping and serious illegal detention, human trafficking and child abuse,” Davao del Norte provincial prosecutors said in a statement issued May 5.