Special investigator Jess Cañete of the Commission on Human Rights in Negros Oriental yesterday warned political candidates not to exploit minors in campaigning for the May 13 polls.
This was after a 14-year-old parking attendant said that he and his companion were paid P50 each last week to distribute a two-page document at the Dumaguete Public Market.
The boy said that on April 21, two men asked him and his companion to distribute three plastic bags of folded sheets of paper.
He said it took them half a day to do it and they went to the Marian Priests Center at the St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral compound later for the feeding activity conducted by the Franciscan sisters of the Diocese of Dumaguete. A volunteer saw the bundles of paper and called the attention of Sr. Maria, who told the boys to stop distributing them.
The document attacked incumbent Gov. Roel Degamo for his alleged sexual abuses of women, three of whom were named. The second page was a copy of a case filed against the governor for acts of lasciviousness when he was still a councilor of Siaton, Negros Oriental.
The case, raised by Degamo’s political opponents last year, was reported to have been dismissed already.
Cañete appealed to bets to stop using black propaganda to discredit their opponents and called the distribution of the document as a desperate act of a candidate.
Cañete said that, if there is enough identification and evidence against the perpetrators, he will make sure that they will be prosecuted.
He also said that exploiting minors for such practice is a violation of Republic Act 7610, or the Anti-Child Abuse Act.*JFP
