DSWD guards face child abuse raps

Two security guards assigned at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) were charged in court last Friday for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old girl.

Rolito Cañete was indicted for violating Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Law while Joseph Fernandez is facing three counts of the same offense.

Bail was set at P200,000 for each suspect.

Cebu City Assistant Prosecutor Ricky Jones Macabaya said there was probable cause to indict the two accused for the crime.

The victim, who was under DSWD custody, was housed at the agency’s center along MJ Cuenco Avenue corner General Maxilom Avenue in Cebu City in September 2008.

On one October night the girl brought the guards their meal only to be allegedly molested by the suspects.

The abuse, the girl said, went on until November 2008.

The girl said the two accused told her to keep quiet about the incident lest they lose their jobs.

Fernandez denied the accusations in his counter-affidavit while Cañete did not answer the allegations against him.

Macabaya cited a Supreme Court jurisprudence that “denial is intrinsically weak, being a negative and self-serving assertion.”

“The defense presented by Fernandez is evidentiary matter, which can be best appreciated in a full-blown trial for the court to determine the credibility of the witnesses,” the prosecutor said.

The law states that child prostitution takes place when the accused “commit(s) the act of sexual intercourse of lascivious conduct with a child exploited in prostitution or subject to other sexual abuse.”

/ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL