Swiss tourist shocked to learn child abuse case is non-bailable

“I don’t know much about your legal system here… I will die.”

CLUELESS. Upon learning that he is charged with non-bailable offenses, Walter Hauck says, “I will die.” CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

Arrested Swiss tourist Walter Hauck smiled brightly when he was presented for inquest proceedings on child abuse charges at the Capitol compound yesterday.

“I don’t know much about your legal system here,” he told Cebu Provincial Assistant Prosecutor Jerome Abarca.

Hauck didn’t hide his face from cameras and vigorously answered questions of the prosecutor –  until he was told that court litigation would keep him  behind bars for a year or more.

His face turned sour in disbelief.

“I will die,” he said.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday filed three kinds of charges against the 66-year-old retiree, who was apprehended in Sta. Fe, Bantayan island, where he has lived for over a year.

He was accused of violating Republic Act 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003, Republic Act 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, and Republic Act No. 9775 otherwise known as the Anti-Child  Pornography Act of 2009.

FIVE BOYS

The five complainants are underage boys from Sta Fe town in Bantayan, where he rented a beach house.  Since children are invovled, the charge was filed was  one of “qualified trafficking,” a non-bailable offense in cases where evidence of guilt is strong.

“It would be better if you face the allegations in court. You’re facing a non-bailbale offense and you have to stay in jail during the pendency of the case,” Hauck was told by the prosecutor.

Hauck’s lawyer Marinel Relacion opted to have charges filed directly with the Regional Trial Court in Bogo City instead of undergoing  a preliminary investigation.

Hauck was arrested by NBI agents  in his rented beach house in Sta. Fe town last Saturday afternoon, a joint operation with the Children’s Legal Bureau and Provincial Women’s Council.

Two teenage boys in the house were rescued.  Three others came forward with accounts of sexual abuse.  The sworn statements of boys aged 12, 13, 14 and 17 were the main basis of the formal complaints.

The five boys were presented yesterday to the prosecutor. Their faces were covered with shawls to protect their identity. Social workers and PWC representatives escorted them.

“Hinipo raw sila. (They were grouped) Basically, they were exploited by the respondent,” said NBI 7 special investigator Agapito Gierran, who briefly explained the contents of the victims’ affidavits.

Hauck, who was escorted in handcuffs to the Palace of Justice,  denied the allegations.

According to the Swiss national, he worked in a logistics or international delivery company and  came to the Philippines in 2012.  He said he settled in Negros island but later decided to transfer to Sta. Fe, Bantayan in  northern  Cebu sometime last year.

He had an Alien Certificate of Registration ID card that showed his visa type as a “temporary visitor”  issued in April 23, 2013 with the status of “tourist”.

Neighbors in Sta. Fe  were upset when they noticed that local boys were frequenting his beach house, some in the early morning.  The Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB) received complaints about his activities which triggered an investigation by the PWC and the NBI.

Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, who chairs the PWC, said it took them over a year to track Hauck’s activities.  Surveillance started in October 2014 and a search warrant was obtained last Friday.

The next day, the NBI served the search warrant issued by Judge Antonio Marigomen of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Bogo City.

Agents recovered from the beach house a laptop computer, mobile phone, stuffed toys, replicas of the male reproductive organ,  a framed picture of Hauck standing in the nude, and his passport.

Hauck, who spent the weekend in the NBI office, was brought in handcuffs and a bright  orange detainee’s shirt to the prosecutor’s office.  When he arrived, he sat down and talked with his lawyer for about 30 minutes.

HYGIENE FOR BOYS

He declined to be interviewed.

Hauck told his lawyer he never molested the boys and that he was not a pedophile.

“The boys approached me to ask money for school. Their parents could not afford to do that and it makes me happy to do them favors,” he said.

Hauck denied touching the boys’ bodies.  He said he just wanted to show  them proper hygiene.

“I’m used to seeing naked people. In the Canary Islands (a Spanish archipelago off the coast of Morocco), everybody goes around there naked. For us, it’s normal,” he explained.

“I’m not a lady boy. I don’t even like lady boys. All I did was to clean those boys who went to my rented house,” he said.

When CDN tried to ask questions, his lawyer’s stopped Hauck from answering.

As Prosecutor Abarca read aloud the charges filed by the NBI, Hauck kept  laughing.

Asked if he would answer the charges before the prosecutors’ office or in court, he looked at his lawyer for advice but both could not immediately decide.

The prosecutor suggested to have the charges filed in court.

At that point, the lawyer told her client that litigation in the Philippines would take five years.

“No, not five years,” interrupted the prosecutor, “just for a year.”

Still, Hauck, who thought he would be released from detention within the week, expressed shock.

Once criminal charges are elevated in the Bogo RTC today, Hauck will be sent to the Cebu provincial jail  pending resolution of his case.

He can file a petition for bail in court.  It’s up to the judge to determine if the evidence against him is strong enough to keep him behind bars during the entire trial.

Under new guidelines of the Supreme Court issued last May 2014, bail hearing should take only a few days.  For serious crimes, judges have 48 hours  after the hearing ends, to set bail.

The guidelines are aimed at decongesting the country’s jails and enforcing the right of accused persons to bail and a speedy trial.