A teacher in Barangay Oy, Loboc is facing charges for violation of the Child Abuse Law before the Visayas Ombudsman. The cases were filed against Cristina Corpuz, a teacher of Tambis Elementary School in Oy, Loboc last March 3 but copies of the complaint were obtained only this week.

Four boys who are all students at the Tambis Elementary School gave their respective accounts of humiliating experiences at the hands of Corpuz in notarized affidavits. A 10-year-old boy said he was subjected to abuse by Corpuz who hit him three times with a hammer after Corpuz suspected that he was the one who tampered with her clock. He said that he made every effort not to cry although he was suffering from the pain in his head.

The boy added that the teacher also flicked water on him when he failed to answer the teacher's question in another instance. According to a 10-year-old complainant, Corpuz slapped his male classmate last Jan. 23 after the boy failed to answer a question about the lessons asked by the teacher. “I did not hear anything from Ma'am Corpuz when she slapped (his classmate) because I was there at the time and when it was over, it was then that I saw (his classmate) cry after he was hit,” the boy declared in Cebuano. This was corroborated by the second victim, a nine-year-old boy who said that when he was asked a question during their Math class, he did not know the answer.

The boy said the teacher approached him and then slapped him, an incident that was witnessed by his classmates in Grade 4. “Because of the embarrassment that I felt, I did not utter a word after she hit me and I only cried because of the hurt when she struck me in the head and hit in the face,” the nine-year-old boy declared.

An 11-year-old boy meanwhile complained against Corpuz about an incident that took place last Jan. 20. The boy who is a grade 5 pupil said that during recess, he intended to give money to his younger sibling as baon (pocket money). Because he was eager to immediately give the money, the boy walked over the doranta flowers.

Corpuz saw this and immediately approached the boy and repeatedly elbowed him, hitting him on his chest. The boy said that as a result, he lost his balance and fell on the concrete pavement. “I cried because of the pain that I felt on my buttocks and chest and Ma'am Corpuz told me ‘you file a case because I am not afraid'”, the boy recalled. Another boy aged 12 complained about an incident in the morning of Dec. 6, 2005 when he said he greeted the teacher. The boy said that the teacher suddenly turned at him and asked him in Cebuano “you want to be mauled?” He said Corpuz then stood over both feet, took his sandals and hit him on his cheek and forehead. After this, he said the teacher hit him with her heel.