A brother of former DZRH radio reporter Jess Garcia, who has been living in Australia for 25 years, has begged the help of President Rodrigo Duterte to stop his impending deportation to the Philippines and to regain custody of his two children.
Inocencio Garcia, a car mechanic, said he does not want to leave his daughter, 9 and son, 8, who have been under the custody of the Australian government since 2014.
He lamented the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila and the Philippine embassy and consulate in Sydney appear to have given up helping him in his “uphill battle.”
“I am appealing for help from President Duterte. Mr. President, by chance you read this story, I want you to know that you are my last hope to get my children back. Without your help, fighting justice for my children against the Australian government seems to be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Garcia.
“I feel that if I don’t fight for my children, I fear my children are bound to break down physically, emotionally or mentally and eventually become liabilities in the society when they grow up. I don’t want them to think that I don’t love them, and I abandoned them in the hands of these evils,” Garcia added.
He said social workers from the Department of Children Services (DCS) and Family Community Services and Justice (FCSJ) in Sydney took his children supposedly on the grounds that they were being neglected after their mother suffered from a mental ailment.
They also took Garcia’s wife, who was reportedly abandoned in a motel, but Garcia failed to confirm this. Since then, he has looked for his children and wife but failed to find them.
Garcia later learned that his wife died due to depression and anxiety.
Due to frustrations and desperation after 7 years of not finding his own family, he posted on social media the names and pictures of his children.
Since his children were minors, he had to pay for turning to social media. He spent 14 months in jail for a charge of unlawful broadcasting and publishing of the children’s names and pictures of faces online.
In the meantime, a court in Australia dismissed the claims of abuse and neglect on his children by the two Australian agencies who took over their custody.
However, Garcia still could not claim custody because the two agencies filed a deportation case against him last April 26, 2021.
