Cops raid school to rescue student

Cebu Sun Star/January 29, 2005
By Jenefer Besere

Cagayan de Oro -- Several persons including three policemen were wounded when law enforcers forced their way inside a school in this city Friday after a parent complained her child was being prevented from going home.

Police forced open the gates of the Jesus Christ Followers (JCF) school in Lerio Street in Barangay Carmen after school officials tore to pieces Thursday court documents ordering them to release a student allegedly hidden inside school premises.

Sen. Insp. Antonio Montalba, city deputy police chief, headed the raid on the school.

Among those seriously injured in the incident were JCF Administrator Emmie Tiongco and teacher Bonnie Dacudao. It was not yet clear how many of the students who rushed to the aid of the school personnel were hurt in the raid.

Police managed at a cost to rescue from the building the child of the woman who complained against JCF school officials. One of the police officers involved in the rescue remains unconscious at the hospital as of Friday afternoon.

When police officers tasked to serve the habeas corpus documents arrived at the vicinity of the school Friday, students, teachers and other school personnel shouted and hurled water bottles filled with feces at them.

Brainwashed

JCF students and teachers also throw whatever things they could get their hands, including plates, glasses and even an electric fan, on at the policemen.

They only stopped when a fire truck arrived and sprayed water on them.

Police then managed to tear down the padlocked gate by hooking a chain to it and having a tow truck pull it.

They had an even harder time gaining access to the second floor because the students and teachers blocked the entryway with chairs and tables.

Police used blocks of wood as battering rams to clear the area. Injured in this phase of the operation were Senior Police Officers 1 Jessie Palencia and Allan Abarientos, both from the Carmen police precinct, and Senior Inspector Ronnie Francis Carriaga.

The incident came about after JCF officials repeatedly refused to turn over a student to her mother.

Jocelyn Macarampat of Barangay Carmen sought assistance from police, saying her child was brainwashed by school officials and kept from going home.

Macarampat said she also feared a dog had bitten her daughter inside the school last January 18 and she wanted to bring her to a hospital for treatment.

'Not scared'

She said she tried to get her daughter from the school only to be insulted and humiliated by the JCF administrators.

Macarampat said she also wanted to know what the dog's condition is.

She said she learned from one Cristy Dacudao, one of the school officials, that her daughter was inside the school.

Macarampat said her daughter was suffering from convulsions and her eyes were glazed. Even then, the JCF administrators were adamant in their refusal to let her daughter go.

She went home and tried to seek help from her siblings but to no avail.

Macarampat accompanied police officers when they served for the third time the court order on seven JCF administrators directing them to produce her daughter.

A JCF official read and tore the papers then shouted invectives at the police and spat at the mother.

"If you are scared to die don't disturb us...we are not scared to die," JCF teacher and administrator Rhapsody Dacudao said. After the raid, Macarampat vented her ire at the JCF administrators.

"Kuhaon gyud nako akong anak bisan unsay mahitabo wala silay katungod paghupot sa akong anak (I'll get my child whatever happens they have no right to hold my child)," she said.

The Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 22 directed the group to appear to answer the habeas corpus petition but not one showed up in court.

After the raid, Rhapsody Dacudao and another school personnel were later handcuffed and then brought to the Lumbia City Jail.