Volunteer teacher accused of sexually molesting boys in Zamboanga City
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – A volunteer-teacher here has been accused of sexually molesting at least a dozen pupils in various schools he had been posted in the past months.
Pedro Melchor Natividad, schools division superintendent, said an investigation was conducted after they received complaints from parents that Johnny Piscos, a volunteer-teacher at the Southcom Elementary School in Barangay (village) Baliwasan here, had sexually molested their children.
“Mrs. Virginia F. Bunda, the focal person for Division Child Protection for elementary, was immediately directed to convene the District Committee of Baliwasan to where Southcom ES belongs,” Natividad said.
He said the DepEd conducted the investigation starting October 21.
“It was confirmed that Johnny Piscos, a teacher-applicant serving as volunteer teacher there, committed the said act,” Natividad told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Wednesday.
He said the volunteer-teacher had also taught at the Ateneo de Zamboanga, Universidad de Zamboanga and Baliwasan Elementary School before teaching at the Southcom Elementary School.
A parent said she found out about her son’s ordeal when the boy’s friends started talking about it.
“At first, I did not believe it but when other parents came forward with the same complaint, that was when my son started talking,” she said.
At the Southcom Elementary School alone, at least nine pupils – the oldest being 12 – had claimed having been sexually molested by Piscos.
Based on what the children had narrated, Piscos would make them clean the classroom and then bathe them one at a time. He would then allegedly molest them.
“We wanted to put a stop to what he has been doing to the children,” the parent said, adding that they had formally filed a complaint before the police.
Senior Supt. Angelito Casimiro, city police director, said the police would submit the complaint against Piscos before the city prosecutor’s office.
He said this would be done as a regular filing, which meant that a court would have to issue a warrant before the volunteer-teacher could be taken into police custody.
Natividad said they have also started to investigate how Piscos managed to become a volunteer-teacher with the approval of the DepEd.
“He was not officially hired by DepEd. I need to know why the school principal allowed this person to get inside and teach without an official order,” he said.
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