False Charges Against Activist Priest
Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer
September 06, 2000
For seven years I had the privilege of writing a weekly column for the Inquirer. Never in all that times was I ever censored or my column went unpublished. I wrote on religious, spiritual and social topics and about my work advocating children's rights and calling for justice against their abusers with other NGO's.
For 26 years, together with a dedicated Filipino staff at the Preda Foundation, we have not hesitated to speak out and stand for human rights against the abuse of women, children and youth. This has earned us a Nobel Peace Prize nomination from British parliamentarians for 2001 and the German Human Rights Award from the City of Weimar this year.
It saddens us that in the Philippines we have to struggle for our own human rights against false charges and injustice.
Our campaign has earned us the ire and retaliation of the foreign leaders of brothel industry, the pedophile supporters and local pimps in Olongapo. They have sent us death threats, and harassed us with 50 legal complaints, most of them for libel and slander in the past two years. Thirty-six of these have been dismissed outright. This is because our work involves helping abused children pursue justice against their abusers.
We have been responsible for bringing several people to justice, including foreigners, such as Australian Victor Fitzgerald and Michael Clarke from England, who were arrested and convicted in Olongapo.
Their friends in the sex industry are out to get us. We are costing them millions in lost revenue as sex tourists stay away from the country.
The most evil scheme is the false accusations of child rape that supposedly happened when the alleged victim was under the care of Preda. These false accusations was dismissed twice because there was no substantial evidence and all other evidence on record pointed to two 12 years old boys as her abusers.
They lived in her house in San Antonio, Zambales, a houseboy, son of the housekeeper, and the child's adopted half-brother. The 7-year-old has pointed to the two boys for the previous eight months and continued to do so when transferred to the care of the Department of Social Welfare And Development, (DSWD).
There, official record show, she told her teachers, DSWD, the Police, the NBI, the Psychologist, other children and a taped question and answer session with a therapist that she was abused by the house-boy and her half-brother. Never once did she blame anyone at Preda.
The house-boy confessed to abusing the child in a sworn statement to the prosecutor. He later sexually abused another minor.
The house-keeper's daughter, 11 at the time, also lived in the house with the American non-biological father of the 7-year-old. In Several interviews (taped with permission), the children in that house said that this American was sleeping with the 14-year-old girl and showing her pornographic videos. He gave his house to the house-keeper, the mother of the girl.
The mother and the American could both be charged for violation of the child protection law because of this intimate relationship. That is why they are actively framing me up with fabricated evidence.
It was only a few months after that the American was able to get the child back and under their influence and power. She was brought by to a bar run by a German who heads the pedophile support group. In this environment and, with coercion to be sure, she was persuaded to write a note that was used to incriminate me.
The American rushed to file another child abuse charge on the basis of this fabricated evidence and released his complaint to the media to try to damage our good name. After investigation by the public prosecutor, the case was dismissed, The handwritten note of the child was contradictory, vague and suspicious evidence. It doe not constitute a prima facie evidence to establish probable cause against me.
The lawyer of American and the pedophile support group, desperate to get something against me, appealed and lobbied to have the decision reverse by the Department of Justice and inexplicably, they succeeded. There, all the evidence clearly showing it was a set up, and pointing to the two boys as the most probable culprits, was ignored including the sworn confession of the house boy.
The child's note, unreliable as it clearly was, was unfairly used to recommend filing of charges against me. It is this recommendation that I am appealing and I have submitted strong new evidence. But yet this warrant issued against me.
We are asking all fair-minded readers who support our campaign against women and child abusers to not let them get away with this frame-up. Please write to President Estrada so that the DOJ will conduct a fair and true review.
FR. SHAY CULLEN, MSSC,
Preda Foundation,
Olongapo City