Five mothers of children who were rescued in a Cordova resort last year said they regretted having received money to withdraw complaints against a 51-year-old Australian engineer accused of sexually molesting their kids.
The women went to the Children’s Legal Bureau to seek assistance last week. They were accompanied by a social worker and a councilor of barangay Poblacion, Lapu-Lapu-Lapu City.
The women said P3,000 was given to each of them in Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 by two local lawyers of Australian James Peter Robinson to execute an affidavits of desistance to refute sworn statements made by the children.
Robinson is detained in the Cebu provincial jail on charges of human trafficking, child abuse and pornography.
The women said they signed documents they didn’t understand after the lawyers warned that they would be issued arrest warrants by the court if they don’t.
The mothers said they met with the lawyers in a restaurant before signing the affidavits of desistance which were brought to the Mandaue City prosecutors office.
“Maong naa mi karon diri aron mangayo og tabang. Lisod naman gud para namo. Labi na nako nga naa koy siyam kabook nga anak (That’s why we’re here now because we are asking for help. It’s hard for us especially me. I have nine children),” said Mary (not her real name), mother of two rescued girls.
The account of the five mothers and one guardian who went to the CLB was formalized in an affidavit.
Mary said two parents went back to their home provinces after being told to lie low and avoid arrest. One of Robinson’s lawyers offered a safe house to stay outside of Cebu, Mary said.
“Sa pagdawat nakog kwarta, dili to bayad kay ni-ana si attorney nga pahalipay lang daw to namo, gi-lain-lain mi niyag tagbo nga mga mama (When I received the money, I was told it wasn’t payment. The lawyer said it’s for our enjoyment.
The mothers were approached separately,) Mary said.
Mary and a mother of one of the boys rescued by law enforcers from the Cordova Home Village said she stayed for one month in Mindanao.
Mary said she was pressured to accept the money because they were poor.
Robinson, who worked in a consultancy firm in Metro Manila, was arrested in the resort, where he had invited several children from Lapu-Lapu City and booked rooms for their stay.
The woman said four to six children were brought to the foreigner’s unit where he took nude photos of them and paid the children P1,000 each.
Police officers who arrested Robinson confiscated his laptop. CLB said nearly 500 photos of nude children and sex videos involving the children were recovered in the computer file.
The computer also showed photos of mothers posing naked with their children.
Lapu-Lapu City social worker Elsa delos Santos and barangay Poblacion councilman Tirso Tumulak, who signed as witnesses of the mothers’ sworn statement, told Cebu Daily News that most parents at first didn’t cooperate with their community reintegration program for the victims.
Mary said Robinson’s lawyer would take them out to a fastfood outlet to avoid the scheduled event “so that we can’t meet with Ma’am Elsa.”
However, Delos Santos said the parents are now cooperating with the government. She said 49 minors were identified in the photos and videos as coming from barangays Pajac, Basak and Poblacion in Lapu-Lapu City.