Palace leaves case of rescued IP students to law enforcers

MANILA – Malacañang on Thursday refused to meddle in the investigation into the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) controversial rescue of 19 minors belonging to indigenous peoples (IP) community from a retreat house in Cebu City.

In a virtual press conference, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the Palace would let the law enforcers look into the case of the rescued IP children.

“This is a police investigation. Let them do the investigation,” he said.

The 19 children – 13 from Talaingod town in Davao del Norte and six from different towns in Sultan Kudarat – were rescued Monday by social workers after receiving report that have been illegally held at the University of San Carlos (USC) retreat house inside Talamban campus in Cebu City since March last year.

Police Regional Office 7 (PRO-7) arrested seven Salugpungan teachers who were allegedly with the children at the USC-Talamban campus.

PRO-7 is now coordinating with authorities in Davao del Norte and Sultan Kudarat in filing the cases against the suspects who are teachers of the Salugpunan Ta Tanu Igkanogon school in Mindanao.

They will be charged with kidnapping, serious illegal detention, and child abuse cases.

On Tuesday, members of the Makabayan bloc filed House Resolution 1590, seeking investigation into the allegedly “violent raid and arrest” by the police against IPs.

Following calls by lawmakers, the Commission on Human Rights launched an investigation into the supposed rescue operation on the USC campus.

Roque said the Palace would let the legal process run its course.

“So hayaan na po nating umusad ang proseso ng imbestigasyon at ‘yung proseso ng katarungan. Hintayin na lang po natin kung ano ang sasabihin ng mga hukom natin tungkol dito sa insidenteng ito (Let the process of investigation and justice take their course. Let’s wait for the decision of the courts with regard to this incident),” he said.

Roque also said the executive branch has no “investigative powers.”

“It’s a finding of fact po and a finding of law. At napakahirap pong mag-komento dahil wala naman po tayong investigative powers (It’s so hard to comment because we don’t have investigative powers). Let’s leave it to our police and let’s leave it to our courts,” he said.