PREDA speaks out on pedophilia
The Foreign Post
January 7-13, 1999
Sir,
I write in reply to the letter of Wilson McCune (The Foreign Post, December
17-23) in which he tries to defame the unblemished 24-year reputation of
the Preda Foundation and its various charitable projects protecting children
and helping bring the abusers to justice.
Let me give the background for McCune's diatribe.
Experts will confirm that attacks by pedophiles and their supporters are
part of their strategy to protect themselves by accusing and discrediting
others so that they can claim they were framed.
McCune is a Federal Express pilot assigned at Subic Bay, with some side-lines
in Olongapo City. He is not an official of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority,
although he gives this as his official address.
The reason for McCune's unsupported accusations against the PREDA Children's
Home is to try to discredit and impede our investigation into his connections
with a pedophile support ring led by a German, Harmut 'Harry' Joost, who
runs a bar with overnight rooms on Baloy Beach, Olongapo City, and is presently
facing other charges before the Olongapo City Court.
PREDA has made a formal complaint of obstruction of justice against Joost
and three other for hiding a child witness who was about to give testimony
against a pedophile.
McCune is associated with this ring which has been blaming the PREDA Children's
Home and myself for their own crimes. They make accusations of every horrible
crime they can think of - the more salacious and outrageous the better -
to get tabloid coverage: child abuse, rape slander, kidnapping and so on,
17 in all this year alone.
The ring made 10 complaints against the DSWD social workers and the regional
director. They accused the Special Prosecutor for Child Abuse Cases with
the crime of child abuse, no less. They will stop at nothing and attack
anyone who opposes them.
All complaints against the Children's Home have been dismissed by jaded
public prosecutors as harassment and the products of an "emotionally
disturbed person" as one resolution put it.
This group of pedophile supporters is desperately trying to reverse the
convictions of Fitzgerald, jailed for eight to 17 years for molesting children
on his yacht in Subic Bay, and British national Michael Clark, sentenced
to 17 years for promoting sex tours and offering minors for sex on Baloy
Beach, Olongapo.
Allegedly Joost was a former partner of Clark but turned him over to the
National Bureau of Investigation when he feared the investigation of Clark
might implicate Joost. He has denied involvement. McCune, a colleague of Joost, has an Internet home page that carries letters and documents by Fitzgerald,
Joost and Edmonds which defame PREDA.
Alan Edmonds, another member of the ring, got his seven-year old daughter
out of protective custody and then said she was raped in the home. His house-boy
confessed already, but they continue to repeat the false and discredited
allegations.
And as regards the author Don Kirk, who has little good to say about the
Filipino people, the church, the foreign community or the work of PREDA for children, in his book "Looted" - Kirk, as it turns out, spent
too much time "researching" with the likes of Joost and McCune
in the bars of Olongapo and Subic, and apparently found more of their forbidden
pleasures than the truth.
Human gardening is a most pleasurable occupation, helping plants survive
and grow, but the hardest part is dealing with the slime and slugs, snakes
and spiders. If anyone wants this job, they are welcome.
Visit our web-site (www.preda.org) to know more about the work of PREDA and our 16-year battle against pedophilia.
Father Shay Cullen, Mssc.
PREDA Foundation
Olongapo City
