5 Cebu IS teachers ordered arrested

CEBU CITY—Five Cebu International School (CIS) teachers were ordered arrested in connection with the drowning of two students during a field trip in Bataan last year.

The Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 3 in Balanga City in Bataan issued the warrants of arrest on June 27 against Tyler Herbst, Susan Rigby, Socorro Laplana, Leah Joy Cabanban and Geronimo Alguno—a little, over six months after they were charged with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide.

CIS school superintendent Deidre Fischer was earlier charged, but the Department of Justice (DOJ) found insufficient evidence to include her in the case.

Balanga RTC Branch 3 Judge Remigio Escalada Jr. set the bail at P30,000 for each accused.

Rigby, Laplana and Alguno—surrendered to police in Danao City in Cebu on Monday. They paid the P30,000 bail in cash.

Judge Gerry Dicdican of RTC Branch 25 then issued the order to release them.

The five teachers were charged by the DOJ with failing to secure the two Grade 8 students who, along with 40 others, went to Bataan for a field trip as part of the school’s celebration of the Philippine Week.

Kyle Gullas-Weckman, the 13-year-old grandson of university owner and newspaper publisher Jose “Dodong” Gullas, as well as Korean national Jae Hak “James” Jung drowned while swimming near the Kairukan Waterfalls in Morong town, Bataan, on Sept. 12, 2012.

Lawyer Celso Espinosa, the lead counsel of the Gullas family, said he was happy that the wheels of justice had started moving.

“At least, there’s progress in the case. All the accused should be arrested. Otherwise, the case would be stalled,” he told Cebu Daily News, a sister publication of the Inquirer.

Espinosa said the counsel of the accused had resorted to all legal means so they could get a reprieve from the court but failed. The case was filed on Dec. 21, 2012, at the RTC in Balanga.

The victims and their classmates were taken by the teachers to Morong for an activity called “small falls trek with survival technique.” But Weckman and Jung drowned while swimming.

Weckman’s mother, Jacqueline, said parents of the students were given the impression that the trip was within the Subic Free Port Zone. But the trip required a 45-minute bus ride and another 45-minute walk through an uphill and forested path toward the waterfalls.

The guides claimed that the teachers did not mention any swimming activities during the trip and that there was no request for any rescue gear.

The DOJ found that one of the accused, Rigby, jumped into the water without changing into proper swimming attire and encouraged the students to do the same.

Two students said there were no safety instructions relayed to them before swimming.

All the teachers purportedly told them to jump not from a “higher but a lower jumping point.”