Women and Children First
Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer
March 02, 2000
The report of your correspondent Ansbert Joaquin is unbalanced
in that it has painted us, the staff of PREDA Children's Home, as the villains
rather than the convicted Paedophile Victor Fitzgerald and his
supporters in sex tourist industry. (Priests Seek Paedophile's Retrial PDI
24/2/00)
The report fails to point out that the affidavit of support of
the Bishop and some of the clergy for a convicted child sex abuser is a
disappointment to us because there are hundreds of child rape victims
who receive no such comfort and support. There are 807 sexually abused children
crying out for justice in the judicial system in Olongapo and Zambales. They
ought to get the affidavits and statement of support not the convicted abuser.
Women and children first is the moral stance that we all need to take on this
issue. In our letter to the bishop and clergy, we said:
We exhort you to understand t+hat the victims of sexual abuse
are crying out for justice. They sometimes feel they are treated as outcasts and
sinners, whereas as Catholic priests and Christians we, like Jesus, must take a
preferential option for the poor and the oppressed, and give them our affidavits
and statements of support.
Your correspondent Tonette Orejas in her story on Olongapo city
PDI 22/2/00 brilliantly exposed the truth about the history of the sex industry
in
Olongapo as a legacy of the Military bases.Today prostitution of women and
children by sex tourists is still the reality and we are battling this social
evil and need the truth to be brought out, as in this case, not a
distortion.
The conviction of Fitzgerald was upheld nequivocally by the
Court of Appeals the judges even increased his sentence to twenty years . They
also said the retractions by the witnesses was likely to be based on
monetary considerations not the influence of our director Fr.Shay Cullen.
Quoting State prosecutor Glen Palubon they said:
There was no way that the horrifying details of sexual molestation and abuse contained in their April 22, 1994 sworn statements could have been provided by the respondent (Fr.Shay Cullen) or anybody but by the lurid account made by minors Jacquiline and Gloria themselves."
None of this was reported . Instead of writing about the
implications of church support for a convicted Paedophile your correspondent
goes on to make baseless allegations against us and attributed quotations to
Fr.Shay that sound sensational, derogatory but are far from the reality. Another
publication got it right.
It is documented by the Solicitor General that Fitzgerald has a Paedophile support group led by a German bar operator , Harry Joost, charged with obstruction of justice in the Fitzgerald case. Joost brought the children to the office of the Solicitor General to file their retractions to support Fitzgerald.
The children, now over 18 , were lured out of the Preda
Children's Home, and with their their parents consent are now prostituted in the
brothels of Subic. This group supporting Fitzgerald got their reversal of
testimony and affidavits of desistance in order to free Fitzgerald.
They were presented before the February 7 meeting of the Diocesan clergy and they were believed without further research. We were never invited to the meet the clergy and give the other side in this case.
Had your correspondent researched and wrote this background , it would be more balanced and socially beneficial to abused women and children everywhere. Lets get Tonette Orejas on to the real story and get this out into the open.
Alex Corpus Hermoso
Programme Director
Preda Children's Home