SunStar Bakwit School 7 cleared of charges, released
REUNITED. Six of the Bakwit School 7 detainees find themselves together at the Police Regional Office 7 for medical check-up prior to their release on Friday, May 14, 2021. / CONTRIBUTED
+ May 14, 2021 AFTER almost three months in detention, two teachers, three adult Lumad students and two Lumad elders were set free on Friday, May 14, 2021.
The Davao del Norte Provincial Prosecutor issued a release order as it dismissed the complaints for kidnapping and serious illegal detention, human trafficking and child abuse for lack of evidence and lack of probable cause.
Even if evidence was found against them, the prosecutors said the cases fall outside the jurisdiction of their office as the alleged crimes happened in Cebu City.
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.
SunStar
(Photo from NUPL Cebu Chapter)
+ May 14, 2021 THE Office of the Provincial Prosecutor (OPP) of Davao del Norte in Tagum City has ordered the immediate release of the Bakwit School 7 after it dismissed the criminal charges filed against them by the Philippine National Police Anti-kidnapping Group (AKG).
The respondents Chad Errol Booc, Segundo Lagatos Melong, Benito Dalim Bay-ao, Moddie Langayed Mansimoy-at, Esmelito Oribawan, Roshelle Mae Porcadilla, and Jomar Benag, collectively called the Bakwit School 7, were charged with violations of the Child Abuse Law, Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, and kidnapping and serious illegal detention.
They were arrested by local police last February 15, 2021 at the retreat houses of the Societas Verbi Divini Philippines Southern Province, University of San Carlos-Talamban campus in Cebu City.
(FLICKR / FILE PHOTO)
In a joint manifestation filed on Tuesday, March 9, the lawyers cited the case of Angelo Karlo Guillen, counsel in one of the 37 petitions against ATA, who was assaulted in Iloilo City last March 3. Guillen survived the attack.
Other reiterative motions filed with the SC for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) against ATA are still pending consideration by the High Court.
One of the motions was filed last February. It cited the arrest of Chad Errol Booc, a volunteer teacher, and Windel Bolinget, chair of the Cordillera People’s Alliance which is one of the ATA petitioners, at the retreat house of the University of San Carlos in Cebu City for allegedly “recruiting and exploiting minors to be trained as child warriors.”
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