DepEd clears students; no trace of ‘*** video’
FINDING no evidence, the Department of Education (DepEd) yesterday cleared high school students reported to have been caught filming themselves while having *** in Argao, southern Cebu.
DepEd directed students to go back to school. The students were allegedly not allowed inside their school last Tuesday.
The official account ran counter to the testimony of Argao resident Enrique Cuizon, who was drinking with friends outside the building at the time of the incident.
Cuizon said he saw two pairs having *** while the third pair kissed and hugged.
“Nihangyo pa ang usa ka laki nga, ‘Four minutes lang noy ha?’ (One of the boys asked me to give them four minutes to finish what they were doing),” he told radio dyLA in an interview.
But a joint police and DepEd team could not find any video clips from a seized camera phone showing that three pairs of students were having *** inside an old tourism building in Barangay Poblacion, Argao last Monday.
What investigators saw on the mobile phone was a photo of two students kissing, said PO1 Arnold Abenir.
After a three-hour inquiry yesterday, Virgilio Suan of DepEd Cebu decided to allow the students to return to their classes at the Canbanua National High School (CNHS), Abenir said.
Abenir and PO1 Ivy Catipay, of the Argao PNP women’s desk, attended the meeting with Suan and CNHS officials from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. yesterday.
Five students, a girl and four boys, showed up to face the investigating panel. They denied they were having *** in the old tourism building last Monday afternoon, said Abenir.
Suan, the provincial administrative officer, clarified there were 12 students involved in the incident, not eight as originally reported, but that “based on the investigation, there is no *** scandal.”
Suan said he will leave it up to the superintendent, Dr. Serena Uy, to impose the proper sanctions against the students. For now, the 12 students have been asked to return to school.
This was the first time allegations of a *** scandal involving public high school students surfaced in Cebu Province, said Uy, DepEd Cebu Schools Division superintendent.
“I really could not believe that this thing is happening right now among our public school students,” said Uy.
She challenged schools to provide “correct information on these matters,” adding that sexual relationships should be grounded in morality and Christian beliefs.
Uy said she is amenable to having *** education taught in schools as long as teachers are trained to handle such a sensitive issue “very carefully.”
*** education could be integrated with the science subjects of high school students, she added, as one way to answer their curiosity.
“I think the only people who can approve and screen materials that are to be used in *** education lessons should be the Department of Education or other people from the academe,” said Uy.
The building where the incident took place is near a public beach and behind the Argao municipal hall and police station.
Abenir said a male witness confirmed the students’ testimonies. The witness said he only saw two pairs of male and female students hug and kiss.
The report of a *** scandal in Argao involving high school students is nothing but an exaggeration by media, a police official said in a separate interview.
Supt. Erson Digal, Cebu Provincial Police Office deputy chief for operations, said he spoke with Argao Police Station Chief Rodulfo Manatad about the report but the latter said the reported *** scandal was not true.
Digal confirmed there was a group of high school students seen drinking near the beach. Among those present in the group was a pair of lovers who were kissing.
Someone took a cellular phone video of them.
A policeman, who happened to be in the area, called their attention, but did not say that the minors were having ***, said Digal.
SPO1 Emmanuel Flores, an off-duty policeman who was having a picnic with his family, also checked the building and reportedly caught the students having ***.
He led the three pairs of teenagers to the Argao Police Station.
But one resident, Cuizon, said he entered the building after his nephew Alvin told him that students were having *** upstairs. He said the CNHS students, most of them in their school uniforms, were also drinking.
He said that the students, using camera phones, filmed two pairs having *** in a vacant attic room. A third pair kissed and hugged.
Cuizon said one of the male students, who noticed his presence, even asked him to give them time after he switched on the light.
But Cuizon said one of the teenagers deleted the video clips they took before lawmen could seize their phones at the police station.
Originally Posted by johnny22aa
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