Two pupils accuse teacher of ‘acts of lasciviousness’

Two public school pupils, accompanied by their parents, filed criminal charges against their teacher for allegedly committing “acts of lasciviousness" against them. The complaints were filed on Monday at the San Carlos City Prosecutor’s Office, the news site “Visayan Daily Star," reported on Thursday. The police, however, withheld the identities of the students and the teacher. A public school teacher in Negros Occidental is now in hot water after two elementary pupils lodged complaints of acts of lasciviousness against him. City Police Chief Superintendent Harold Tuzon said the charges filed were for “acts of lasciviousness in relation to the child abuse law, or Republic Act (RA) 7610." An accused person can be convicted of child abuse “through lascivious conduct on a minor below 12 years of age," if the requisites of the acts of lasciviousness’ (under Article 336 of the Revised Penal Code [RPC]) and sexual abuse (under Section 5 of RA No. 7610." Section 5, Article III of RA No. 7610 lists the elements of sexual abuse as: (1) The accused commits the act of lascivious conduct or sexual intercourse; (2) The said act is performed with a child, either exploited in prostitution or subjected to other sexual abuse; and (3) The child, whether male or female, is under 18 years of age. Police Officer 2 Ma. Angelie Fajardo of the San Carlos City Police Women and Children’s Complaints Desk, said the complainants, both girls, are aged 9 and 11. Fajardo said there were initially five complainants, but only two decided to file a formal complaint. The first complainant told police the incident allegedly occurred in October last year, when the teacher asked her to clean one of the offices in their school. He allegedly molested her by touching her private parts and then gave her P20. She said a similar incident happened again in November. The second complainant claimed that the teacher also allegedly touched her private parts after asking her to clean one of the offices in their school in June. Fajardo said one of the complainants told a classmate about her ordeal, and her father eventually learned about it. The victim's father went to the school to confront the teacher regarding the incident, she added. Meanwhile, the Department of Education in San Carlos City has investigated the complaint, the Visayan Daily Star report said. –VVP, GMANews.TV