Sexual abuse case filed vs former councilor

BULACAN: A former town councilor in San Miguel, Bulacan was slapped with “sexual abuse” charges by his two alleged victims before the Bulacan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office recently.

This was announced on Sunday by lawyer Joey Cruz, who also presented to the Bulacan-based media the alleged victims identified only by their aliases Mark and Joey.

Cruz identified the respondent as Melvin Santos, a former village chief of Barangay Camias and a former municipal councilor of San Miguel.

The victims claimed they were just 17 years old when they were allegedly molested in separate incidents by the former councilor. Mark is now 35 years old and Joey is now 30.

The cases were filed at the Bulacan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office on Jan. 17, 2024.

Based on the 9-page narrative statement of the alleged victims, they said they were separately molested by Santos in 2008 and 2011. They said Santos was holding a gun and they were unable to resist as the former councilor threatened to kill them if they reported the incident to the authorities.

After several years of silence, the two victims decided to file their complaints after another victim of Santos came out and filed the same case against the accused last month.

Cruz said he also represents the first complainant, identified only as Alias Roy, who filed rape and sexual abuse charges against Santos on Dec. 18, 2023 before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.

Roy, 21, said he was only 16 when Santos molested him in 2018.

Santos, meanwhile, told The Manila Times through a text message that these “are part of character assassination” against him because he has filed corruption charges against the town’s mayor before the Ombudsman.

He said he is ready to answer all allegations at the proper forum.