DSWD calls 'insensitive' coverage on death of employee

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet  – The Department of Social Welfare and Development called as  “careless and insensitive”  the reportage on the  "hacking-to-death” of a DSWD-Cordillera employee in Villaviciosa town in Abra.

DSWD-Cordillera director Leonardo Reynoso said they are saddened by  how some media outfits “created unfair speculations and accusations among the public on the details of his passing,” while insisting that 29-year-old John Paul Barbero is “a well-loved and hardworking community facilitator of the Kapit-bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) Project”.

Barbero, 29, a resident of barangay Apappaya, Villaviciosa town, sustained different hack wounds from a bolo,  killing him instantly, the Cordillera police said in its regional crime journal sent daily to journalists here.

The initial police report claimed Barbero attempted to rape a 21-year old girl in sitio Las-ud, brangay Bollilising, in the same town 11 a.m. Tuesday last week, prompting the younger brother of the latter to grab a bolo and hack the DSWD employee to death.

Police further added that  the DSWD employee arrived at the tobacco flu-curing barn of the suspect.  Barbero allegedly tried to rape the 21-year-old woman,  an employee of Medicare Hospital.

The DSWD-Cordillera,  however,  wants probers to dig deeper into  the case while “sympathizing and respecting the pains of both parties involved in the incident.”

“We appeal for sensitivity and compassion especially from the public and the media to stop speculating and commenting on the matter which might impinge on the ongoing investigation about the incident,”  Reynoso said. - Artemio A. Dumlao