A retired Philippine Judge tells a few of her child abuse cases

I am writing from recollection of some of the cases that I tried. There may be some inaccuracies in the ages but the facts are as written. I may have tried more than a hundred cases which all ended in conviction and no appeals. One or 2 cases were withdrawn because the family could not bear the shame aired in public). RTCs designated as Family Courts are doing a good job. Cases of children are given high priority.

Rapists and child molesters do not skulk in dark and isolated places to wait for their prey. Most of them do it from the comfort of home. They are not strangers but men whom their victims trust – grandfathers, fathers, uncles, or brothers.

1.7-year old Myrna always came home from school for lunch, even before her grandma started to live together with “uncle” Marcus. Grandma peddled vegetable salad for a living in the center of town and Myrna was used to having lunch by her lonesome. She liked Uncle Marcus — he always bought her treats that neither her grandma nor her own father didn’t. Her father lived with a new family of his own 200 meters away and Uncle Marcus often gave him money.

One day when she was in Grade 2,she found that uncle Marcus was home. She did not know that he was having her for lunch. Every day for the next eight years, she was his lunch treat and sex slave, silenced by his threats that he would kill her grandma, father, and siblings if she said a word to anyone. Whenever her grandma was home, he would order Myrna to help him with some errand outside the house after supper as a ploy to get her alone with him and he would have his way with her in a grassy area behind their house. When she had turned 15, he would growl and demand, “give me a child!”.

Myrna finally found the courage to tell someone – a lady who worked in her church. This lady promptly brought her to the town’s DSWD who put her under its custody and started the legal wheels turning.

A sad footnote to Myrna’s story was her grandma and father’s denunciation of her for the foolish tales she told.. How could such a generous man do what Myrna said he did? In court, at the sight of them making threatening faces and fists, Myrna broke into hysterics and pleaded that they not be allowed in the court premises.

Accused was convicted of several counts of child abuse by rape. He did not appeal.

2.13-year old Dian’s mother was always in bed,ailing with tuberculosis, too weak to serve her husband and children.Dian, who had dropped out of school while in grade 2, labeled as a slow-learner, took over the household chores and the tasks on the farm as her father’s help-mate in processing the coconuts into copra. One afternoon, while busy with her tasks, she found her father behind her, carrying a gallon of water and ordering her to wash herself. She refused and her father forcibly washed her and did the abominable.

3.She promptly told her mother who advised her to run away from home, giving her directions for traveling by bus, motorcab, and barge to a town across the bay where her sister lived. Gathering her failing strength, her mother got up from bed, took money from underneath her mat – =P153.00 in all, which she had earned by selling malunggay to vegetable dealers when she still had her health. Although Dian was all nerves in following her mother’s instructions, she was able to do the commute and get to her aunt’s home in Lanao del Norte the following day. In her aunt’s care, she went to the DSWD and filed the complaint against her father.

Accused was convicted. He did not appeal.

4.13 year-old Julia quit school because her stomach was growing and she didn’t know why. It would be so embarrassing if her classmates would notice. Then her mother saw it and broke down in tears, asking her who did it. One after the other, well-meaning relatives came to help her mother extract the information from her but she couldn’t say it. Then her father disappeared from their home and not long after, she had unbearable pain which relatives and neighbors called labor pains. A baby was born. Everyone said he was the spitting image of her father. Finally, she told her mother that one night, she woke up with her father beside her on the floor where she slept with her siblings, that he covered her mouth, and put himself atop her, that when he was done, he went back to the room where her mother was sleeping.

The accused was convicted. He did not appeal.

13 year-old Sara was awake at 4:00 a.m., ready to take a national examination for Grade 6 pupils being conducted by the DepEd. Her mother was awake too, ready to go to the barangay chapel to join a dawn rosary, bidding her to make good.

6.Her father (a lay minister) was still in bed when she went outside the house to take a bath. When she was done, she wrapped herself in a towel and went up to her room, She found her father standing by the bed. When she said, “Pa”, he grabbed her towel and had his way with her. Cowing her into silence with threats that he would kill her and her mother, her father repeated the assault 3 or 4 more times in their farm before she mustered the guts to tell her mother who brought her to the town’s DSWD. The accused was convicted of several counts of child abuse/rape. He did not appeal.

7.16-year old Gina, with a rosebud on her lips and apples on her cheeks, was caught at the bathroom of her Catholic high school snorting drugs. Brought to the principal’s office, she broke down and said that suicide and drugs were her only options in life. Her parents had broken up and in the last 3 years, she had been moved from foster care to foster care in her three uncles homes, 2 of whom molested her while the 3rd one was currently abusing her. To earn her keep at her third uncle’s home and for him to send her to school, she fed the pigs and the pigsty at the back of the house. She was also the all-around girl when she was not in school. While she fed the pigs after school, her uncle frequented the back of the house, making conversation with her. After some time, her uncle began to grope her and touch her private parts.. When she cleaned her uncle’s car at the garage while the rest of the family was watching TV, her uncle would come out of the house to grope her. When his wife ordered her to clean the upstairs rooms, he would follow her and do whatever suited him, depending on the time and circumstances. Whenever his wife went out, leaving them alone in the house, he put himself on top of her, many times spilling himself all over her and sometimes consummating the deed. She wrote the dates in her journal, spanning a period of 9 months.

8.Accused put up a “valiant” defense. How could he do it – complainant is his brother’s daughter, he is a member of the Knights of Columbus and Couples for Christ, a respected member of the community? He has erectile dysfunction because of diabetes.His allegation of erectile dysfunction confirmed the complainant’s story that he spilled himself on the floor and on her thighs.

Accused offered the complainant’s younger sister, also in his care, as a witness to discredit the complainant’s story.

Accused was convicted of some 30 or 35 counts of child abuse by acts of lasciviousness and rape. The conviction was appealed but later withdrawn.

4-year old Lisa went to Child Care Center at the barangay elementary school. As her parents were busy making a living, it was her grandfather who took her to the center and brought her home which was a long walk through grassy terrain. Grandpa often made long stops to rest and fondle her. One day, he told his son and daughter- in- law that he was taking Lisa to the city.

According to Lisa, they went to a house and they stayed in a room overnight. While there, grandpa put his penis inside her. She cried but grandpa told her to keep quiet and not tell anyone. After the trip to the city, Lisa got sick. When her mother looked at her panties, she saw blood and when she looked at her daughter’s genitals, she found them swollen. A doctor confirmed her fears and her daughter, after being asked, informed her that it was grandpa, who had by then left the house without notice, who did it. After fleeing and being at large for some time, grandpa was arrested in Bohol.

The Grandfather was convicted. He did not appeal.

Some molesters do wait in isolated places although they feed their lust and pickle it at home.

15-year old Rosemary walked to school everyday, passing through the large cacao plantation of her parents’ landlord.Often, dusk overtook her as she walked home but she was not afraid. She was used to it. One day, however, she saw her elder brother standing in the middle of the plantation and when she asked him what he was doing, he quickly overcame her and raped her.Her brother did not come home.With the help of her teacher, she filed a complaint against her brother.

He was convicted. The Accused did not appeal.