Teacher linked to students’ deaths leaves Phl

MANILA, Philippines - An American teacher accused in the drowning of two students during a field trip in Bataan last year was able to leave the country Monday night after the Bureau of Immigration failed to release a hold departure order issued by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima in time.

De Lima’s order, which bars Susan Ward Rigby and co-teachers Tyler Herbst, Socorro Laplana, Leah Joy Cabanban, and Geronimo Alguno from leaving the country, was issued on July 5 but the BI released it only on July 9, a day after Rigby flew to Hong Kong.

Rigby was reportedly accompanied by an unidentified member of the United States embassy when she left for Hong Kong.

She and her co-teachers at the Cebu International School were charged by the Department of Justice with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide for the death of Korean Jae Hak “James” Jung and Kyle Julian Gullas Weckman during a field trip in Morong, Bataan in September 2012.

Weckman is the grandson of Freeman newspaper chairman and former Cebu congressman Jose “Dodong” Gullas.