The Manila Times
MANILA, Philippines — A non-profit organization that has been sheltering an 11-year-old girl, whose appeal for help to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had gone viral, sought to clarify some "msinformation" surrounding some of the events that she pointed out in her story that was contained in a speech she delivered during her graduation recently.. The Redeemer Homeless Mission, through lawyer Mary Joy Lumbria Acobera, said the girl, identified only as Maureen, and all children in the shelter area were safe and in good condition. The controversy stemmed from an open letter the girl read during her graduation ceremony recently where she sought protection and redress from sexual and other forms of abuse allegedly perpetrated by a barangay kagawad (village councilor) and his sons. She then walked out of her graduation ceremony to submit a petition to the vice mayor of Tinambac, calling for the removal of the local official. Acobera said that the administration and teachers of the Caloco Elementary School, where the girl was studying, “had no prior knowledge of Maureen’s decision to walk out of her graduation ceremony.” “School Head Harrison Belleca and Ma’am Michelle Daliva-Ocampo were likewise unaware of the portions of her speech where she intended to call out the injustices and where she sought permission to walk out,” Acobera said in a statement on Wednesday. Acobera also clarified that the girl did not walk home alone but was joined by her older sister who read the Bible in a prayer walk to the local government of Tinambac. Acobera also "set the record straight" after the girl recounted how her peer, reportedly a child with special needs, “got pregnant from the first rape” and how the village councilor “kidnapped” her and took her to Montalban for an abortion.” “The accused in the rape case has been in detention as the matter is pending before the court of law. Maureen’s prayer walk was not solely for this specific incident; it was a stand against the impunity of a public official attempting to intimidate and silence the residents of Caloco,” Acobera said. Acobera extended the shelter's gratitude to the president for his swift response and action that was carried out by the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of the Interior and Local Government and Tinambac Municipal Mayor Edward Albert “Bobit” P. Prades.
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