CEBU CITY, Philippines — Curfew on minors in Barangays Guadalupe and Tisa will be strictly implemented.
Guadalupe Barangay Captain Michael Gacasan and Barangay Tisa Philip Zafra said this amid the recent incident involving an alleged rape of two girls in a lot in Good Shepherd Road at dawn last Sunday, April 7.
Gacasan and Zafra agreed to coordinate in implementing the curfew and to implement measures to prevent such an incident from happening again to minors in the barangays especially in Good Shepherd Road, which lies near the border of Guadalupe and Tisa.
Read more: Two girls, 13 and 14, raped by 15-year-old boy and his 22-year-old cousin in Cebu City
Both barangay captains said they would also increase foot patrols in the area.
Gacasan called on Zafra to help them and coordinate with them in securing the Good Shepherd area.
A call that Zafra readily agreed on.
Gacasan’s actions were made after Sunday’s incident where three minors, two boys and a girl, engaged in a drinking session with also a 22-year-old man in an area in Good Shepherd Road at the border of Barangay Guadalupe and Barangay Tisa.
The drinking session ended in the two girls, 13 and 14 years old, getting drunk and allegedly getting raped by the boy, 15 years old, and his 22-year-old cousin.
Read more: Two suspects in rape of two minors hunted by Cebu City police
Aside from agreeing to coordinate increasing the foot patrols in the Good Shepherd area, Zafra also called on the parents of minor children in the barangay to take care of their children and to check on them always especially at night.
He said they should not allow their minor children to go out at night.
He also warned parents that if they would catch minors roaming at night several times and would be involved several times in incidents, the parents would be held responsible and cases would be filed against them.
Zafra said one challenge of patrolling the area was that the minors loitering in the Good Shepherd Road area would cross across the border of Barangay Tisa so that the barangay tanods of Guadalupe would hesitate to apprehend them since it was no longer their barangay’s jurisdiction.
Gacasan said that with their coordination perhaps these could be addressed.
Zafra said he was asking his Gender and Development focal person to assess and find a solution on how the barangay could monitor the children in the barangay during night time./dbs