DAVAO CITY—The Ombudsman in Mindanao has dismissed a barangay official and public school teacher after being proven guilty of molesting minors.
Captain Achilles Jude Babaran of Barangay Pagatpat, Cagayan de Oro City was dismissed on Monday after a 15-year-old girl accused him of abusing her in two separate occasions.
In a written testimony, the minor said that on June 19, 2015, she attended a youth meeting in their barangay hall when Babaran asked her to come with him. She immediately followed the latter since “he is the barangay captain,” she said.
Babaran then brought her to a motel and raped her, the statement added. On Sept. 22, 2015 the incident was repeated when Babaran brought her to a hotel anew.
The victim said she was threatened by Babaran not to tell her parents or he will dismiss them from the relocation site where they are living.
The Ombudsman found substantial evidence to dismiss Babaran following the minor’s claim.
“As a rule, a victim of rape will not come out in the open and make public the offense committed on her, undergo the agony and humiliation of a public trial and endure the ordeal of testifying on all the sordid details of the crime, if she had not in fact been raped, and if her motive was not to obtain justice and her testimony as to who abused her is not the truth,” the decision reads.
“Thus, when a woman, more so if she be a minor, says that she has been raped, she says in effect all that is necessary to show that rape was committed, and if her testimony meets the test of credibility, the accused may be convicted solely on the basis thereof,” it added.
The Ombudsman also dismissed Genaro Caballero, a public-school teacher of Bagumbayan National High School in Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat, for molesting his 16-year-old student twice.
According to the complainant, Caballero molested her on the second week of December 2015. After the incident, the teacher gave her P35 “as a form of ‘reward’” and threatened the student not to tell anyone or else he will flunk her.
The incident was repeated on the last week of February 2016, and after the incident Caballero gave him P20 and signed her clearance, the statement added.
“Undoubtedly, respondent’s lascivious conducts, for two consecutive times and while inside the school premises, against the complainant, who is under his care, custody and supervision, for the purpose of giving him certain benefits, constitute violations of R.A. No. 7877 (Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995),” the decision read.
The Ombudsman also indicted the OIC Secretary of the Department of Education of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Leovigilda Cinches, for anomalous purchases of office supplies and computer equipment from two enterprises owned by her son, Anthony.
“Respondent’s intervention and participation in the transactions of DepEd-ARMM with enterprises owned and managed by his son is clearly established,” the decision reads.
Cinches was indicted along with four others, including the accountant, a director, and the chief supply officer.
