'Angry' Marcos vows help for girl who bared local official’s alleged abuses

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the deployment of policemen to a community in Camarines Sur after reading the letter of an 11-year-old girl who detailed the alleged harassment that she and other children suffered at the hands of a barangay official.

Marcos commented on the letter penned by the girl, which was posted on social media by a non-profit organization based in Camarines Sur.

“Your letter has reached me and brought me close to tears and made me very angry. I am sending policemen to you and your sisters to protect you and to find anyone who has hurt any of you,” the President said.

“I will make sure that you will be able to continue reading and studying as much as you want. You are a very brave, intelligent, and very kind girl and I will make sure to help you and your sisters in any way you need,” he added.

The two-page letter alleged that the son of a barangay official raped one of the girl’s “sisters” at the non-profit mission. The victim became pregnant and was allegedly abducted by the barangay official to have the baby aborted.

The victim no longer goes to school after she was allegedly raped once more.

The letter-writer also alleged that the local official threatened them and harassed them by cutting off their access to electricity and water and by allegedly destroying or stealing their crops.

She said many of the families “stay in survival mode because government people make life very difficult.”

She then pleaded with Marcos for help, posing this question to the Chief Executive: “How will we read if we are being raped? How will we read if our own government people cut our electrical wires so we have no lights? How we will read if our kagawad cut off our balon wires and so we have no water?”

“We are kids, we are not involved in your political parties. I just want to go to school without being raped. So, can you please help us?”

The letter-writer walked out of her elementary graduation to bring a complaint against the local official and a petition signed by 201 residents to authorities.

Marcos assured the girl that he will help her should there be anything else that she needs. — JMA, GMA News