DepEd exec charged with drug use, child abuse

BACOLOD CITY—Police filed charges of illegal drug use and child abuse against a Department of Education official here for inducing teenage boys to use shabu in exchange for sex.

Joshua Santillana, 54, DepEd district supervisor assigned to Cadiz City, was charged at this city prosecutor’s office on Tuesday.

Santillana is detained at the city police station 3 after his arrest in a drug den last week.

Police attached to the complaint results of a drug test on Santillana that showed him positive for drug use. Also attached to the complaint was the affidavit of the father of one of the two minors Santillana allegedly sexually abused.

The father’s affidavit alleged that Santillana made his son use drugs and then sexually abused him, said Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz, Bacolod City police director.

The father also said Santillana hired commercial sex workers to have sex with young boys while he watched.

Santillana was arrested at the drug den in Barangay Banago last week after it was raided by police. Two teenage boys were rescued during the raid.