Girl, 14, chained to post for a year by parents

BACOLOD CITY — A 14-year-old girl in Negros Occidental is suing her parents for treating her "like an animal" and leaving her chained to a post for a year, social workers said yesterday.

The girl, whose name is being withheld, fled her home in Don Salvador Benedicto town a week ago and alerted police to her plight.

Her right ankle was scarred and callused from a four-foot metal chain put on her, social workers said.

The parents had kept her in chains for more than a year for playing truant and to prevent her from spending time with boys, the social workers quoted the girl as saying.

The girl, accompanied by police and provincial authorities, had a confrontation with her parents at the town hall on Monday.

Her father, Teodoro, 54, said "it was better to (keep her chained) than to keep beating her up. That would be more painful for both her and her parents."

Her mother Virginia begged her for forgiveness, telling her that sending them to jail, as the girl wanted, would be "like killing us and your brothers and sisters." The girl has four siblings from her father’s first wife, and 13 by Virginia.

The girl was unmoved and said she could not forgive her parents for "treating me like an animal."

Chained inside their hut for almost a year and fed like a dog, the girl said she finally found a chance to escape from the clutches of her parents last July 23.

Speaking in Cebuano and Filipino, the teener, whose face was covered, said that at about noon of that day, she decided to make a run for it during one of those rare times that her chains are detached from the house post to allow her to do some chores.

With the chains and shackles still attached to her body, she said, she walked and stayed for two days and two nights in a cave located several kilometers away from their house and survived by eating wild bananas. She continued walking until she reached the house of a concerned citizen where she stayed for a night.

For two more days she walked until she reached a house in Barangay Quezon, San Carlos City on July 27. Quezon is located on the boundary of San Carlos, the city next to Don Salvador Benedicto.

She was brought by an unidentified resident to barangay councilman Johnny Pedrosa, who immediately referred her to the municipal social welfare and development office and the town police.

Mayor Cynthia de la Cruz said the girl grew up in Manila under the care of her grandmother since she was three years old and was brought back to Don Salvador Benedicto in 2002.

The teener was attending Bunga Elementary School before her parents decided to pull her out of school.

She said she first left home in 2002 because she could no longer bear the maltreatment from her mother, who would bump her head on the wall, punch and pinch her everytime she made mistakes.

She was found the following day by her father, who promptly beat her up and shaved her head.

When she attempted to flee a second time, she said her father again beat her up and chained her inside the house. Her father also threatened to bury her alive in a pit he dug near their hut, she added. She said her mother did nothing to defend her and even agreed with her father’s idea of keeping her in chains.

She remained chained for a year, except for the times she was required to do housework. Then she would be shackled again when the rest of the family left the house, she said.

Meanwhile, Teodoro, a farmer, claimed he only wanted to teach his daughter a lesson for not attending classes and for joining the company of boys. He said he feared his daughter could be raped or would get herself pregnant, so chaining her was the solution.

Virginia on the other hand said it pained her to see her daughter chained but added this was for her own good.

Charges of violation of Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Law are being prepared against the couple.

The child is presently undergoing psychiatric treatment following her ordeal, social workers said. — AFP, Antonieta Lopez