As 60-year-old Freddie Aguilar is facing this controversial issue with his 16-year-old girlfriend, even before the singer told his girlfriend to the public, yesterday the official said that Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) stopped her from leaving the country.
Wilma Naviamos, DSWD Region 4-B director had raised a red flag when she rejected the girl’s application last August 29 to travel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to watch Aguilar’s concert, said DSWD Protective Services Bureau director Dulfie Shalim.
Shalim said that the girl wanted to travel with Aguilar, unaccompanied by her parents. When DSWD Region 4-B rejected the girl’s application on September 5, the girl’s mother showed up to make an appeal.
Right after, “The DSWD region office there took the initiative to give counseling to the girl’s mother about allowing her child to travel out of the country without a parent and with a man,” Shalim said.
Social workers also further explained through counseling and told the girl’s mother on the risks and consequences that her child may encounter in going out of the country.
Shalim said the DSWD Region 4-B has yet to make a report on a visit the Protective Services Bureau ordered to determine the role the girl’s parents played in the 60-year-old singer’s romance with the girl.
Shalim said if it comes out that the parents coerced the girl to have an affair, they will be guilty of child exploitation. At the very least, they could be held liable for neglect, and the girl “will be a ward of the state,” the official said.