CEBU CITY—A judge here ordered the immediate release of one of several lumad students who had been taken into custody by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DPWH) in Central Visayas following a police raid in a university campus last Feb. 15.
In a ruling on March 11, Judge Leah Geraldez said the lumad child, a 16-year-old girl, has to be returned to her father as the court found no factual and legal basis to keep her at the regional DSWD’s Crisis Intervention Center.
“The court cannot deprive the petitioners of such a fundamental right as parental authority over his child based on bare allegations alone,” said Geraldez, of the Regional Trial Cour…
Keep on reading: Judge says lumad girl being held on basis of ‘bare allegations,’ orders her release