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Friday, March 29, 2024

Plea of Spanish national on minor’s sex abuse junked

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A Taguig City Regional Trial Court will proceed with the trial of Spanish national Francisco Manuel Sanchez de Oria on charges of sexually abusing a Filipina minor and possession of pornographic materials after it junked the case dismissal plea of the accused on the ground that the victim “decided not to pursue the case” against him by executing an affidavit of desistance.

The ruling came after the accused pleaded “not guilty” on Friday on criminal charges filed against him by the Department of Justice for violation of Republic Act 7610, otherwise known as “Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act” and RA 9775 or Anti-Child Pornography Act.

Justice Undersecretary Emmeline Aglipay-Villar said Presiding Judge Byron San Pedro of  Taguig City RTC, Branch 15, denied the motion to dismiss filed by Sanchez for being “unmeritorious.”

“The Court’s Order dated 27 October 2021 indicated that the “Motion to Dismiss on Affidavit of Desistance Executed by Private Complainant is unmeritorious, citing jurisprudence which provides that “as a general rule, courts view unfavorably affidavits of desistance or a recantation of a victim’s testimony, since they can be easily be obtained . . . and that such affidavit are viewed with suspicion and reservation,” Villar said, citing the ruling of the court.

 Villar also noted that the Presiding Judge stated that “the dismissal of a child abuse case is prohibited if made solely based on an affidavit of desistance or recantation submitted by the child and/or the child’s family, citing the Protocol for Case Management of Child Victims of Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation and DOJ Circular No. 2002-54.”

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“The Presiding Judge concluded that the affidavit of desistance did not exculpate the accused,” Villar said.

According to Villar, the affidavit of desistance stated that the victim “decided not to pursue the case against Franco Sanchez anymore and that the misunderstanding and misapprehension of facts between them have already been patched up.”

However, details were no longer narrated in the said affidavit of desistance, the DOJ official said. Rey E. Requejo

Earlier, Sanchez pleaded not guilty on charges of sexually abusing a Filipino minor and possession of pornographic materials when arraigned by the Taguig City RTC.

Villar said the next hearing on the cases of the accused has been set for Dec. 7 for the presentation of the prosecution’s first witness.

Sanchez was charged with 10 counts of violations of Republic Act No. 7610, the Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act, and one count of violation of RA 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act.

Last Aug. 31, the RTC issued an arrest order against Sanchez. He did not post bail since he is currently detained at the Bureau of Immigration (BI) which is conducting deportation proceedings against him.

The criminal charge sheet against Sanchez stated that he “willfully, unlawfully and feloniously have sexual intercourse” in Taguig City with the victim who was “a minor, fifteen (15) years old at the time of the commission of the offense, or a child exploited in prostitution or subject to other sexual abuse, to the damage and prejudice of said victim.”

The complaints against him were filed by the family of the 16-year-old girl, a student of an exclusive school in Metro Manila.

The charges against Sanchez had also been filed by the same complainant against former United States foreign service officer Dean Edward Cheves before the Pasay City RTC which had issued an arrest order against him (Cheves).

However, Cheves is in the US where he was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia last Aug. 3 for engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place and possession of pornography.

He was a director of the US Embassy in Manila from Sept. 2020 until Feb. 2021.

The DOJ has been studying the possibility of extraditing Cheves so he could face trial before the Pasay City RTC.

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