Professor charged with sexual harassment

BAYBAY, LEYTE - The City Prosecutors Office here has decided to endorse the sexual harassment complaint of a female student of the Visayas State University who claimed her professor kissed and fondled her last November.
Atty. Gorgonia Pineda Encina, first assistant city prosecutor has recommended the filling of the case against Professor. Paciano “Passky” Quirol, a widower, claiming there was “sufficient grounds to believe that the crime happened and the respondent was probably guilty.”

The prosecutors office has already sent the parties copies of its resolution. Encina said that Section 3 of Anti-Sexual Harassment Act states that in an education or training environment sexual harassment is committed when the victim is under the care, custody or supervision of the offender.

Encina noted that “in this case, it is undisputed that there was a teacher-student relationship between the parties and the respondent exercised some degree of moral ascendancy over the complainant.

“Apparently the acts of respondent in squeezing complainants hand, embracing and kissing her while allegedly courting her were against her will although she was silently protesting. These alleged sexual advances by the respondent resulted in a hostile and offensive environment for the complainant,” she added.

The complainant claimed that Professor Quirol invited here over to Ormoc City to visit one of the farms here in relation to her thesis. She was then taken to his own farm in Curva where he started kissing and fondling her.

Quirol in his counter affidavit did not deny the young girls accusations and admitted that as a widower he was feeling lonely and saw similarities between his student and his late wife.

He said he “courted” her but respected her “no” when he attempted to kiss her.

According to the EV Mail this was not the professors first sexual harassment complaint.

Man stabs then shoots friend

SOGOD TOWN - A patient of the Sogod District Hospital was shot and seriously wounded by a gunman while recovering from stab wounds he had suffered a few days before. Police identified the victim as Nestor Tenio Cawaling a 48 year old farmer from barangay Mahayahay, Sogod who was shot with a 45 caliber pistol in the neck.

According to PNP sources Cawaling was stabbed a week earlier in barangay Javier by his neighbor Goliath Destriza. Investigators claim the victim and his attacker had a personal grudge against each other. As of this writing the police are still looking for Goliath.

Old Man Loses Cocks

An 80 year old man from barangay Combado has filed a formal complaint with the city police against an unidentified man who he claimed stole his three fighting cocks. According to PNP sources the victim Cosme Resus arrived at the station fuming mad because his three fighting cocks were his most valuable assets.

Meanwhile a 44 year old woman from barangay Cagnitoan complained to the PNP desk officer that her neighbors had stolen her pig, 3 ducks, 2 dogs and farm tools. The victim Rosita Bandibas told police that at about 10:00 p.m. last Tuesday Jimbo Morial Guilao, his brother Jimy Guilao and their relatives entered her farm and stole the above mentioned items. She said they even harvested all her coconuts and even stole the fish in her pond.

Music Lover Robbed

A 61 year old resident of barangay Badiang told police that thieves had entered her house and stole her Hyundai microphone, tile cutter, portable stove, a Samsung DVD and one woofer with two twitters. She said the stolen items were worth 26,000 pesos. SPO2 Tereso Magallanes and PO2 Aldous Roa who were assigned to the case told SLT that the intruders had entered Necitas Balucos residence by removing the glass jalousies of her stockroom windows. They would neither confirm nor deny they had any suspects.

Choir girl claims priest raped her

ABUYOG TOWN, LEYTE - The National Bureau of Investigation in Eastern Visayas has charged a priest here of sexually abusing a former choir member of his parish.
According to NBI Regional Director Antonio Pagatpat he filed the case against Father Edwin Caintoy of the Mission Station of the Blessed Pedro Calungsod Church in Barangay Santa. Fe Abuyog last Thursday.
The complaint was lodged by 17-year old “Amelia” (not her real name) and her parents. In her sworn statement she said Father Caintoy first sexually assaulted her in July 2009 when she was just 16.
She said the choir members were sleeping at the mission station after a late practice and while going to the comfort room she was waylaid by the priest who dragged her into his room and threatened to kill her is she yelled for help. Amalia claimed he ordered her to undress and raped her.
Amalia claimed he sexually abused her several times after that at the convent, her boarding house, and at a lodging house in Baybay City. She told the NBI she did not report the incidents because “he threatened to kill me if I did” she narrated.
Amalia said each time the priest raped her he made her watch while he took a bath and repeatedly told her his body was “holy” and she should respect and fear it.
The complainant’s parents claim the suspect had called them several times and had pleaded with them to drop the charges and just settle the matter out of court, but that they refused.

Motorcyclist Kills Barangay Chairman

BARANGAY ICHON, MACROHON – The barangay Captain here was killed last weekend when he was hit by a speeding motorcyclist while walking home along the road in Sitio Tuburan. Witnesses claim that 59 year old Raymundo Gonzales had just visited his farm when the accident happened.
According to police reports Gonzales was sideswiped by a motorcycle driven by his neighbor Marvin Monter Bernacibo. Police claimed Bernacibo had no driver’s license and his vehicle had no license plate.
Gonzales was rushed to the provincial hospital but died two hours later from his injuries. Bernacibo who surrendered soon after the incident could be charged with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide.
Gonzales was the second elected official to die the past month in motorcycle related accidents. The other was 76 year old Liloan municipal councilor Resurrecion Remolino who was killed when his motorcycle crashed while he was trying to avoid a stray dog in Barangay Ilag, Liloan. Both victims died from massive head injuries.

Swindlers Strike Again

BARANGAY TUNGA-TUNGA, MAASIN – The cashier of the Arravhela Store here was swindled by two scalawags off 500 pesos last weekend. Police identified the victim as 18 year old Annabel Alico a resident of Tunga-tunga. According to Annabel she was busy attending to customers when two men asked her to change their money which was in various denominations. She said she consented because she needed change, but shortly afterwards, she noticed she was short changed by P500.

Mercury Drugstore Robbed

TUNGA-TUNGA, MAASIN – The security guard of the Mercury Drugstore here apprehended a 55 year old jobless widow who he caught stealing powdered milk work 865 pesos last Monday morning. Sources claim the suspect Elizabeth Urgria a resident of Barangay Can-odieng, Ormoc City admitted she stole the powdered milk for her grandson whose parents were destitute like her.

Editor’s Note: Shop lifting cases are seldom brought to court because of the small amount involved and the legal expenses court cases entail. What some stores do is to photograph known shoplifters and place their photos beside their cashiers.

“Zero Crime Rate”

Topping the list of petty crimes in this week’s police blotter were the usual “buy bust operations” regularly conducted by the city police.

Last week it was 18 year old Jeffrey Galing Mortel of Bontoc who elements of Maasin’s Finest caught sniffing Vulcaseal a sealant chemical meant to plug leaks in the roof tops of houses.

Although the Southern Leyte Times was unable to interview the suspect, we suspect he was sniffing the chemical to forget his sad plight in life where he was unemployed and unemployable and had no future. But if that’s a crime then most of the vagrants in the city should be in jail with him.

Meanwhile a team of CENRO officers reportedly apprehended four men in barangay Lunas (the hot bed of illegal logging in the city) who they claimed were illegally sawing Molave lumber which they would later sell.

The suspects were of course released after 48 hours when no one (including the CENRO arresting officers) filed illegal logging charges against them. This incident only strengthens our belief that some government entities are not only useless, but harmful to the people they are sworn to serve.

In yet another petty crime incident recorded in the city police blotter 67 year old Ricardo Gonzales Olita was apprehended at a police check point with masiao paraphernalia by no less than City Police Chief Hector Flores Enage.

The arrest though laudable raises the question every city resident has asked themselves, which is:

“If there are masaio runners then there must be masiao financers. And if this is true – why aren’t they being arrested?” Every Tom, Dick and Harry know who the top Masiao financers in Maasin are - except the city law enforcers.

Masiao and other “illegal” gambling operations employ millions of otherwise unemployable people in the Philippines – so why is the police picking on them while Petra Pongase’s murderer is still roaming the city thumbing his nose at our law enforcers?

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