Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is hopeful that Lumad children will get justice following the issuance of the warrant of arrest against the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP)-Haran Bishop Hamuel Tequis and five administrators of the UCCP-Haran Center in Father Selga St. Davao City.
The Davao Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 12 recently issued warrant of arrest against Tequis and the administrators of the UCCP-Haran Center namely Reverend Daniel Palicte, Ephraim Malazarte, Jong Monson a.k.a “Jong-Jong”, Lindy Trenilla, and Grace Avila for child abuse.
The six UCCP-Haran leaders were charged with the violation of Republic Act (RA) 7610 or the special protection of children against child abuse, exploitation, and discrimination act (anti-child abuse law).
“For the child abuse cases, it is already a police matter. I hope the children will get justice,” Mayor Sara said in a text message.
In May 2020, Mayor Sara blamed the Lumad organization over the deaths of two children inside UCCP-Haran.
The first child from Haran to die was an eight-month-old baby who died on May 11 while the second was a three-month-old baby who died on May 17.
In an interview with Davao City Disaster Radio) DCDR), the mayor said what happened to the two children was a form of “murder.”
She said the two children would not have died if they had been taken care of properly.
The mayor issued the statement after the PASAKA-SMR, a confederation of Lumad organizations, issued a statement denying that the cause of death of the two children was Covid-19.
PASAKA stated that it was not possible for the two children to have contracted COVID-19 since the Lumad in Haran do not even have food and medicine (FM) passes and therefore could not go out.
