Mother fights orphanage
THE executive director of orphanage and childcare facility Gentle Hands Inc. is facing charges of kidnapping as well as ‘failure to return’ the three minor children of a 31-year-old mother.
The complainant, Monina Espinosa Roxas, who is also known by the name Juvy Roxas Espinosa, was assisted by lawyers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) particularly the Inter-Agency Committee Against Trafficking (IACAT) Task Force in finalizing her complaint affidavit.
Roxas filed the cases against Charity Heppner Graff, executive director of Gentle Hands Inc., which has childcare facilities in Project 4, Quezon City and in Baliuag, Bulacan. The case was filed before the Quezon City prosecutor’s office Friday (June 9) afternoon.
Based on Roxas’ complaint-affidavit, Graff allegedly refused to return her three children despite the GHI’s receipt of her Parenting Capability Assessment Report (PCAR) issued by the Pasig City social welfare office.
Roxas has also submitted to Gentle Hands the dismissal of the case involving Republic Act 7610, an anti-child abuse law pertaining to family matters, which was the reason why the complainant-mother in late 2019 initially sought the assistance of Bahay Kalinga for the temporary shelter of her three minor children.
Bahay Kalinga would later refer Roxas and to Gentle Hands headed by Graff, who immediately took her three minor children for temporary shelter in GHI’s Quezon City facility during the third week of November 2019.
In filing her case, Roxas’ lawyers cited the case of People v. Bernardo, 428 Phil. 769, 776 (2002), “This crime has two essential elements: The offender is entrusted with the custody of a minor person; and the offender deliberately fails to restore the said minor to his parents or guardians.”
Complainant Roxas narrated that she was not able to see her three children from 2019 up to December 2021 as Gentle Hands personnel often refused to allow her children to see their mother whenever she comes to visit them.
Roxas revealed in her affidavit that based on the rules of Gentle Hands, she can only visit her children every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and that each visit would only last for one hour.
