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[av_heading heading=’Abuse cases involving cops alarm Gabriela ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Sunday, February 5, 2017
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ILOILO City – Militant women’s group Gabriela has offered to help two Ilonggas who claimed to have been sexually abused by policemen in Mandurriao district and Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo.
“We are alarmed. These complaints cropped up while the Philippine National Police was also mired in the issues of corruption and illegal drugs,” said Roxanne Arsaga, chairperson of Gabriela in this city.
A female inmate of the police station in Mandurriao district accused a police officer of sexual harassment.
According to the 19-year-old complainant, a resident of Barangay Nazaret, Buenavista, Guimaras, Police Officer 3 Miguel Jancilan touched her private parts.
Jancilan was an intelligence officer of the Mandurriao police station.
Meanwhile, a 15-year-old house helper in Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo claimed her policeman employer raped her.
It happened on Jan. 22, according to the girl who is now under the custody of the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office of Barotac Nuevo.
Although the mother already filed an affidavit of non-interest in pursuing charges against Police Officer 2 Herbert Padernal Jr., sources told Panay News the girl was insistent on suing her employer criminally.
“We will offer assistance to the complainants such as counseling. We will demand justice for them and the prosecution of the respondents,” said Arsaga.
Arsaga urged other victims of sexual abuses perpetrated by men in uniform to come out, report and seek justice.
In the Mandurriao case, the complainant was detained at the district police station on Jan. 25 for alleged shoplifting. She was accused of stealing P20,000 worth of clothes from a mall.
If the inmate were to be believed, Police Officer 3 Jancilan touched her breasts around 2 a.m. on Jan. 28.
Jancilan denied the allegation before his superior, Chief Inspector Al Loren Bigay. He simply talked to the inmate and took her picture, he said.
Bigay said he reviewed the video recordings of the police station’s closed circuit television camera but it was not clear if the harassment indeed happened.
“We will conduct an investigation. We will give Jancilan a chance to defend himself,” said Bigay.
In the Barotac Nuevo case, Police Officer 2 Padernal was disarmed and placed under restrictive custody by his police station.
A complaint for violation of Republic Act 7610 (Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act) was also filed against Padernal at the Iloilo Provincial Prosecutor’s Office by the housemaid through the Barotac Nuevo police’s Women and Children’s Desk.
Padernal, who denied raping his 15-year-old housemaid, was also relieved from his assignment as driver of the police station’s patrol car and security of the Barotac Nuevo municipal hall.
“I relieved him while the investigation is ongoing,” said Senior Superintendent Harold Tuzon, provincial police director.
He did not discount the possibility that Padernal would be charged administratively, too./PN
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