The Stories of Marla and Precious

The Stories of Marla and Precious
Francis B. Bermido Jr.
Preda News

In the history of the Preda Foundation since 1974, we have helped thousands of child victims of physical and sexual abuse including incest rape, and human trafficking. The worst case of multiple sexual abuse and rape of young children that were rescued and referred to the Preda Home has to be that of the sisters, Marla and Precious.

When they were welcomed into the Preda family, they were severely traumatized, almost unable to talk about their trauma. At first, they were fearful and withdrawn. They were shown friendship and given affirmation, acceptance, understanding, comfort, and care. They were assigned to their own area and beds and given all their personal needs and introduced to the other children. There was a cheerful welcome.

It took several days before they showed any interest in joining the activities such as group dynamics, group games, educational classes, singing, arts and crafts, life testimony, family meetings, prayer and Gospel reflection groups, and sports and outings. They preferred to just watch the educational film shown in the late afternoon.

Then, after a week, one day Precious stood up and joined a circle of children holding hands and dancing as a group. She smiled for the first time, she made a friend after the dance and they sat together. Marla was much more shy and reluctant to participate despite encouragement. It was only after the eighth day that she made a move and sat in a Gospel reading with the other children and Precious. She did not say anything, she just listened to the story of Matthew 8:1-7 where the Lord declares children to be the most important in the Kingdom and justice must be done so abusers will be held accountable. She listened to the discussion on child rights and values of life.

After some weeks she, too, was joining all the program activities and happily smiling, finding her lost childhood, Marla and Precious were happy. They were free from the terrible abuse done to them over years. This is a horrific account of child sex abuse and rape that they told to the municipal social worker, the police, and later to the therapist and social workers at the Preda home.

Marla had been given up for adoption to her Aunt at an early age. When seven years old, her adoptive parents separated and she was returned to her biological father, an unemployed alcoholic. Her biological mother was a live-in domestic worker for a well-off family. Marla had never known her biological parents until she was seven. When she was eight, her brother, Mar, then 14 years old, raped her one night and threatened her not to tell anyone or bad things would happen to her. She was terrified and remained silent, burying the secret, pain, and fear within her. Her trauma did not end there.

When she was 11 years of age, Rene, whom she called “Uncle Rene,” the brother of her sister’s husband, raped her in her bed in the dark of night. She was again threatened and remained silent, never daring to make a complaint although she was filled with anger and fear. They were all against her.

Then the worst thing of all happened to her. At 12 years of age, her own biological father came at night and raped her aggressively. It didn’t end there. Her family held her as a sex slave and her older brother, Engel, came too and raped her when she was 15 years of age. He made threats of violence against her so she lived in constant fear and was traumatized. There was no way out for Marla.

Precious, the older sister who had suffered and endured similar abuse from several family members, was sent to work and earn for her relatives as a domestic servant in the house of a middle-class family. There, Precious was unable to contain her grief, shock, and pain any longer about what was being done to her and told the teenage daughter of her employer. That young woman had been likely attending Preda seminars on child rights and abuse and she knew what she had to do. On March 21, she went to the municipal social worker and reported what Precious had told her.

The police and social worker went to the house where Precious and Marla were and after some mix-up, they eventually rescued both Marla and Precious. Precious had never known that Marla was a victim like herself. Marla, however, had seen her brother rape Precious but was afraid to tell anyone.

The four males in the family had total ascendancy, dominance, and control over the lives and bodies of the two sisters. Both minors Precious and Marla were referred to Preda for protection, care, and healing in March 2021. The sisters joined the activities and eventually joined the Emotional Release Therapy in the padded therapy room. There, they were encouraged to recall all the abuse and rape that they suffered and to release the pain by shouting, crying, and screaming at their abusers again and again until they were empty of anger.

In every session, they punched the cushions as if punching the abusers. They felt better and better. The anger poured out of them both, the hatred was released. In time, they coped with the reality of the rape and abuse. Within a month, Precious was feeling stronger and empowered and asked for help to file a formal complaint against her abusers that April. Soon after, the prosecutor presented his resolution to the court, accusing the four of rape and sexual assault.

They were then arrested and Precious testified courageously. She was ordered to take psychological tests to verify her psychological condition and that she was traumatized and damaged by such abuse. We can now see that such continual sexual abuse caused emotional and psychological trauma and it frequently goes on in families.

All of us must accept that human nature has evil sexual desires and aggressively seeks to satisfy them. We must act to protect the victims/survivors and defend the dignity of every woman and child and see that justice is done.

Marla, knowing that her sister had filed her case, believed that the jailing of the suspects was sufficient but in recent weeks felt that she, too, had the courage and strength to fight for her justice, too. She bravely filed her complaint last week against her elder brother for having raped her.

The shocking and almost unbelievable crimes of incest rape and abuse that goes on so frequently is hidden from the view of society. There are few healing protective homes for child victims /survivors of sexual abuse. Thousands of children like Precious and Marla are intimidated and hide the abuse done to them. But these two sisters found the courage to fight back and we hope and pray with them that justice will be done.

All victims/survivors need support and encouragement to report and get help. Many more protective therapeutic homes are urgently needed so child victims/survivors can be protected from the vengeful families of abusers. They need to be healed and empowered and get justice and the offenders must be brought to justice and held accountably.

*The Preda therapeutic home for victims is supported in part by the Government of Canada through the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines’ Canada Fund for Local Initiatives.

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