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A 14-year-old year girl narrowly escaped death from the hands of a 14-year-old boy.
This disturbing story involving a minor offender carried a more serious implication as it might also have been motivated by a foiled molestation attempt.
The incident happened inside a makeshift private market in barangay Yati, Liloan, 19 kilometers north of Cebu City, in the early hours of Saturday.
Catherine (not her real name), who helps her parents sell vegetables at the market, was stabbed four times by a boy she had thought was her friend.
The Liloan police was now searching for the boy, who has since gone into hiding.
Since the boy cannot be held criminally liable for the offense under the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, the police are expected to turn him over to the boy?s parents, who in turn will have to bring him to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), once he is in their custody.
Catherine said she was sleeping inside their market stall when she suddenly heard a noise beside her around 2:25 a.m. last Saturday.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the boy standing beside her while holding a knife.
?Wa kahibawo unsa ang iyang tuyo apan ang zipper sa iyang shorts nag abli na. (I did not know what his intention was. All I know was that the zipper on his pants was already opened),? Catherine narrated to CEBU DAILY NEWS yesterday inside their house, located about a 100 meters from the market where the incident happened.
Catherine had been discharged on Sunday morning from the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City where doctors had stitched the stab wounds on her tongue, lips, neck and right arm.
Catherine recalled she was so startled by the presence of the boy. But as soon as she shouted for help, the boy reacted by stabbing her several times.
The boy, she said, ran away when he heard there were people who responded to her cries for help.
The boy, who was also suspected to be behind a number of petty thievery inside the market, is protected from facing any legal action because of Republic Act 9344, or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006.
?He has no criminal liability under the law,? according to lawyer Irene Caballes, a volunteer of the Children?s Legal Bureau (CLB), a Cebu-based foundation that promotes justice for children.
She, instead, urged the boy?s parents to submit their son to an intervention program of the DSWD.
Caballes pointed out that under Article 2, Section 6 of Republic Act 9344, ?a child 15 years of age or under at the time of the commission of the offense shall be exempted from criminal liability.?
The offender, however, shall be subjected to an intervention program by the DSWD, the law states.
Under the same law, if a child who is taken into custody is 15 years old or below, the authority which will have an initial contact with the child has the duty to immediately release the child to the custody of his/her parents or guardian, or in their absence, to the child's nearest relative.
The Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, authored by Sen. Francisco ?Kiko? Pangilinan, freed minors from criminal liabilities as it ?recognizes the vital role of children and youth in nation building and shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual and social well-being. It shall inculcate in the youth patriotism and nationalism, and encourage their involvement in public and civic affairs.?
SPO1 Claudio Castro, one of the Liloan policemen who rescued Catherine, however said they would proceed with the filing of a frustrated homicide and attempted rape complaint against the boy.
He said they would file the complaint today before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors' Office.
Catherine?s parents were adamant that the boy should be held responsible for the crime and would want to see him jailed.
Her mother said they would never agree to an amicable settlement of the case.
?Gusto nako mapriso gyud siya. Kon pasagdahan na namo, daghan unyang maamong (The boy should be put in jail. If we will not do something, there might be others who might also suffer because of him later on),? Catherine?s mother told CDN.
She also urged the boy to immediately surrender to authorities in order not to delay the disposition of justice.
?Ipapangita gyud namo siya. Hinaot mo surrender na siya aron di na madugay (We will want him to be located. I hope he will surrender immediately),? Catherine's mother said.
Her father also wanted the boy jailed.
?Basin ang sunod biktima ana, mapatay na gyud. Di gyud mi makig settle (Maybe, his next victim will die. We will never allow a settlement),? the victim's father said.
Catherine remained bewildered why her friend wanted to harm her.
She denied having a love affair with the boy.
?Ang akong amiga mao ang iyang uyab (My friend is the suspect's girlfriend),? said Catherine, a second year high school student in Liloan.
But Catherine said she remembered that the boy had written on an electric post near their stall in the market the words, ??(the boy?s nickname) love ?(the girl?s nickname).?
She said she had no idea why the boy wrote those words on the post.
The boy?s mother also sells fish at the same market where Catherine?s parents have a stall.
The victim's parents have meanwhile taken measures to ensure their daughter?s protection. She now has to sleep with her parents all the time.
Catherine?s parents said their daughter has to stay with them even when they would have to spend the night at their stall to finish working on some beads that they have to deliver to their customers.
The couple also do bead-making for makers of accessories and they would usually sleep inside the market stall so they could do their deliveries on time.
Catherine?s parents started their market business around 20 years ago, paying a daily stall rental of P100.
Catherine?s parents did not open their stall yesterday to be at their daughter?s side, notwithstanding the fact that their meager income has been dissipated by their daughter's medical expenses, which reached P8,000.
Catherine, the third child, has four other siblings ages 23, 20, 13, and 8, all of whom are dependent on their parents.
Castro, meanwhile, said the boy?s father has promised to surrender their son once they find him.
Castro said the boy?s father had also his own brushes with the law, having been arrested several times on drug-related cases.
The boy's mother, he said, has also gone to the Liloan police several times to complain about being beaten by her husband.
