Hot-headed lawman charged with child abuse

A policeman was charged Friday with child abuse for allegedly running over a 15-year-old boy with his motorcycle, pinning the latter’s foot and punching him in the face all because the latter accidentally hit him with a golf ball.

A case of violating the law protecting children against abuse, exploitation and discrimination was filed in the Manila Regional Trial Court against PO3 Alfredo Dayao of Malate, Manila, in connection  with the incident that happened more than five years ago.

Based on court documents, the boy and his friend were playing with a golf ball on Paris Street in Malate on Jan. 12, 2008, when it went out of bounds and hit a gate. It also struck Dayao who was on his way out.

The irked policeman got on his motorcycle, pinned the boy’s foot with one of the wheels and angrily demanded to know who threw the ball at him.

When the victim admitted that it was him, the policeman grabbed the boy’s shirt and punched him in the face.

The complaint said a pedicab driver informed the boy’s mother that her son was being mauled. When the mother arrived, Dayao told her: “Are you this boy’s mother? He threw a ball at me.”

When the mother replied that her son did not do it deliberately, Dayao took the golf ball and said: “Do you want me to throw this at your face so that you will know how much it hurts?”

The boy’s sister who also arrived at the scene said Dayao punched and kicked her mother. She said she embraced her mother and asked Dayao to stop. However, the policeman got hold of a signboard and repeatedly hit the two women with it.

During the preliminary investigation, Dayao did not submit any counter-affidavit, the resolution said. Assistant City Prosecutor Maria Cielo Rubi Galicia, meanwhile, dismissed the initial charges of attempted homicide and slight physical injury for insufficiency of evidence but recommended the child abuse charge and bail of P80,000.