Online casino worker accused of sexually harassing teens

Another Chinese national has landed in the news, this time for allegedly sexually harassing three teenage girls at a theme park in Pasay City.

Zhang Yang, a 19-year-old employee of an online casino operating in the country, was charged with acts of lasciviousness after the victims — 18-year-old students — accused him of fondling them inside a horror house at Star City on Feb. 7.

An investigation conducted by PO3 Vanessa Camisera of the Pasay City police’s Women and Children’s Protection Desk, showed that Zhang, who was with another Chinese man, approached the teenagers and touched their private parts.

The women asked for help from security guards who took Zhang into custody.

He was later turned over to the custody of the Police Community Precinct 1 (PCP-1) which filed charges against him the following day.

However, five policemen involved in the case, including the precinct commander, were sacked from their posts after the mother of one of the victims claimed one of the lawmen tried to pressure the teenagers into settling with the suspect.

Policemen under fire

Director Guillermo Eleazar, National Capital Region Police Office chief, ordered the relief of Chief Insp. Remedios Terte, PCP-1 commander, and her men SPO3 Timothy Mengote, SPO2 Jonathan Bayot, and Police Officers 3 Archie Rodriguez and Ranier Dumanacal.

They were ordered to report to the Pasay police station’s holding and accounting unit pending the results of an investigation into their case.

In an interview on dzMM on Tuesday, the mother of one of the victims said that one of the policemen had urged them to accept money from the suspect in exchange for dropping the case against him.

He also told them not to call their parents anymore as they were already of age, she claimed.

She added that one of the policemen even hinted that they should get a cut of the settlement from the suspect.

Zhang was the second Chinese national to end up in jail last week.

On Feb. 8, Zhang Jiale, a 23-year-old student, was arrested and charged after she threw a cup of “taho” (sweetened soya curd) at a policeman assigned at the Metro Rail Transit 3 station in Mandaluyong City.

Her “taho tantrum” prompted calls for her deportation.