NGOs Set Welcome for Fr. Shay Cullen
BCG Willing to Drop Case if Cullen Apologizes
Published in Sun Star - Davao
February 01, 2001
GROUPS advocating for children's rights in the city are all set to welcome today Fr. Shay Cullen, an Olongapo City-based priest, facing a libel case here for allegedly maligning Davao Mayor Benjamin de Guzman.
The groups are also urging de Guzman to withdraw the case he filed last year against the priest.
Cullen is scheduled to be arraigned here for a P50-million libel case tomorrow.
In a telephone conversation with de Guzman, he told Sun.Star Davao that he has already told several groups who have approached him urging that he drop the case that he is willing to do so for as long as Fr. Cullen will make "some kind of a public apology" to the people of Davao.
He said several people have approached him about this case since last year, including child right's advocates and representatives of the Church.
But, he said that Fr. Cullen's actuations did not just malign him but the Dabawenyos as well and it is his duty, as city mayor to redeem the Dabawenyos' name.
The mayor accused Father Shay Cullen of alegedly circulating malicious stories on the Internet with the intention of destroying the City's "child friendly" image and demolish the Mayor's credibility. The case was filed on October 1999, shortly after child advocates raised an alarm over the brutal killings of two street youths, 17-year-old Royroy and 18-year-old Maymay, and the subsequent harassment of other street children by unidentified men, described by the children as vigilantes.
"Instead of pursuing the killers, the mayor who also chairs the Davao City Council for the welfare of Children, turned on the child rights advocates. The filing of the case indicates how City hall looks at child protection and raises questions on the 'child-friendly" tag awarded to the city," a press statement by Lihok Kabataan, a coalition for children's rights stated.
They stresses that the legal action they are demanding is the identification and eventual prosecution of the killers of the four youths and not of the libel case de Guzman filed against the priest.
The statement was signed by Jeanethe C. Tolop of the Kaugmaon Center for Children;s Concerns Foundation Inc., Mae Fe A. Templa of Juvenile Justice Groups-Davao, Myra G. Macla of the Kabiba-Alliance for Children;s Concerns, Atty. Samuel R. Matunog of the Tambayan Center Inc., Anita Morales of the Metsa Foundation, Bernie Mondragon of the Higala Foundation, Beng Hernandez of the Karapatang-Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights, Marivic Desquitado of Link-Davao, and Yazman Z.I. Quitain, Child Advocate.
For his part, de Guzman said, "I do believe that the statement of Fr. Shay Cullen hurt the city of Davao and its people, especially that we have been recognized as a child friendly city."
The NGOs accused the city government of not being concerned about the case where two youths, Royroy and Maymay, were killed in broad daylight along Ilustre Street by alleged vigilantes on accusations that they were snatchers.
"Now, one year and six months after Royroy and Maymay were shot dead, their killers still have to be identified and hailed to court. Instead, what the libel case is seeking is redress for the Mayor's ruined reputation," the statement further said.
The group added that harassment of street-children continues.
They reported that last year, two more street youths, Iking, 17, and Victor, 20, were shot dead by unidentified men.
"The two were involved in reporting the harassment being experienced by young people in the streets and had feared that they were already marked and on a death list drawn up by the killers of Royroy and Maymay. Their fears were proven correct," the statement said.
"The lack of action on the killings and harassment of street kids indicates that City Hall does not consider the protection of street kids a priority agenda. This might mean that children who join juvenile gangs, do not have the right to be protected by the city. This might mean that this administration would rather let the killers of the street youths go scotfree than address the issue. This might mean that child advocates are better off shelving their concerns, while the city basks in the glow of its 'child friendly' award. This might mean that the legitimate concerns of local street children would always be neglected by this administration," the statement continued.
For his part, de Guzman said, :That is not true."
"We are addressing the situation. In fact, I created the action group headed by (former Counselor) Leo Avila to take care of that and I have always given instruction to the police to give top priority to problems like these, for the police to make some sort of action to immediately respond once a complaint of this nature is submitted to them," he added.
With regards the fact that until now no suspect has been identified in the killing of Maymay and Royroy, de Guzman said, "That's because nobody has ever come out in the open to identify the real culprit."
"That's the reason why I created that group headed by Leo Avila so that any kind of information that would lead to the identification of those harassing street children, if ever that is true, and the filing of charges," he said.
Avila, in a separate telephone interview said that the action group created by the mayor even included the tambayan, one of the signatories in the press statement.
The task group failed to pinpoint any suspect.
Avila said that the case about Royroy and Maymay and Fr. Cullen should not be treated as one and the same.
"How can the city government file a case against the killers when nobody can even say who the killers are," Avila said.
But one thing he is sure of, Cullen, in his Internet statement about Davao, made it appear that street children are being killed off in the city.
"Cullen made it appear, specially to the world that the city government is abetting killings of streechildren,: he said, and this is an entirely different case from the still unsolved deaths of Royroy and Maymay.
"We feel that Cullen has painted not a good picture of the people of Davao, I think he should answer some questions. While we are trying our best to give the children special attention, here is someone who's telling that people in Davao, specially the government officials, are actually killing these children and there is even no proof and we cannot even identify the perpetrators," Avila said.
He added that the local child rights advocates here should make an effort to know who they are giving their full support to, hinting that child rights advocates in Olongapo City themselves are accusing the priest of misconduct on children.
"They should also first get to know who Fr. Cullen is," he said.
Stella A. Estremera
Sun.Star Davao
