A DAVAO City court has junked charges of child abuse against six administrators of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines Haran Center in connection with the deaths of two Lumad children who sheltered in the center along with other Lumads.
This after Judge Dante Baguio of the Davao City Regional Trial Court Branch 12 granted the demurrer to evidence filed by the accused — Bishop Hamuel Tequis, Rev. Daniel Palicte, Ephraim Malazarte, all are working for the UCCP Southern Mindanao District Conference; social workers Lindy Trenilla and Grace Avila; and Christony Jun Monson, secretary general of the Pasaka Confederation of Lumad Organization.
They were accused of child abuse for allegedly allowing the untidy condition at the Haran Center. Maintaining cleanliness at the center is part of the responsibility of the accused as center administrators, the prosecution said. The court said it was also the duty of the parents of the Lumad children to maintain cleanliness at the Haran center and that the supposed untidiness was not established as the cause of death of the two children.
Baguio, in an order dated June 13, said “there was no evidence that would connect the death of the children inside the Haran, whose cause of death was the virus, or fault would have been attributable to all the accused herein because of failure or neglect.”
He said the prosecution failed to show that the accused or the Haran Center were responsible for the conditions that led to the children’s deaths.
The court added there were even attempts to provide medical attention to the Lumad children who sheltered in the center.
“Based on the evidence, the specific intent to debase, degrade or demean the intrinsic worth and dignity of a child as a human being that was so essential in the crime of child abuse was absent on the part of all the accused when the UCCP Haran establishment had been utilized as evacuation center for the indigenous Lumad where two children died,” the court said.
Further, the court said it was also the duty of the parents to maintain cleanliness at the Haran Center.
The court also ordered the release of the cash bond posted by each of the accused amounting to P120,000.
