The Philippine bishops´ social action commission is supporting the call of a bishop and some of his priests for retrial of a man convicted of molesting children, but without saying it thinks he is innocent.
The retrial of Australian Victor Fitzgerald is being opposed by Irish Columban Father Shay Cullen and his People´s Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance (PREDA), whom two girls say coerced them into testifying against the convict, now 70.
The Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace supports the appeal of Bishop Deogracias Iniguez of Iba for a new trial, St. Paul de Chartres Sister Rosanne Mallillin told a Manila press conference March 15.
However, Sister Mallillin, commission executive secretary, “made it clear that her support for a new trial in no way speaks of the issue of Fitzgerald´s guilt or innocence, nor does it speak of the allegations of over-zealousness on the part of PREDA,” Ash Medina of the commission told UCA News March 24.
According to Father Alberto Avenido, “a new trial will show that Fitzgerald is either innocent or guilty, but it may also show that Father Cullen and PREDA are innocent of the girls´ claims that they twisted the truth.”
Father Avenido, Iba´s social action director, was among 27 diocesan and foreign priests who signed a petition in February supporting Bishop Iniguez´s affidavit for a retrial. There are 47 priests working in the diocese.
The social action director told UCA News he went to the Department of Justice in Manila earlier in March to push for a retrial after people in Zambales province said he “had to show that we are serious” on the matter. Iba diocese, based in Iba, 140 kilometers northwest of Manila, covers Zambales.
Bishop Iniguez issued an affidavit in February after he spoke with two girls who testified in 1994 that Fitzgerald molested them. The girls told the bishop that PREDA staff including Father Cullen forced their testimony.
The two girls, now 18 years old, were under the care of PREDA during Fitzgerald´s trial. They also addressed a February meeting of Iba´s clergy that led priests to write a letter of support for a new trial.
Bishop Iniguez said he believed Father Cullen and PREDA “might have exceeded the bounds in influencing the children in their pursuit against pedophiles.”
He added, though, that he was not able to judge “beyond reasonable doubt” whether Fitzgerald was guilty or innocent.
The Regional Trial Court in Olongapo City found Fitzgerald guilty of child abuse and exploitation in a May 1996 decision and imposed a prison term of eight to 17 years. PREDA is based in Olongapo, where a sex and entertainment industry grew up around the former U.S. Subic Naval Base.
Fitzgerald´s lawyers appealed to the Court of Appeals, alleging coercion by PREDA of the two girls, who retracted their original testimony.
Last September, however, the higher court affirmed Fitzgerald´s conviction and increased his sentence to 14-20 years.
“Considering the candid and straightforward narration by (the) complainant of how she was abused … which bears the earmarks of credibility, we are convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant did commit the act complained of as correctly found by the court,” the appeals court ruled.
“It is highly probable or possible that such retractions were made for a consideration, usually monetary,” the court added in its ruling.
Father Cullen told UCA News that a German national “very active in the sex industry in Olongapo City” paid the girls to withdraw their testimonies and is smearing him and PREDA to get rid of critics of the sex trade in the city.
The missioner said he and PREDA staff were “completely shocked and amazed” by the bishop´s affidavit and the priests´ letter.
The Philippine Church´s “preferential option for the poor” compels its Church leaders to stand up for the victim, PREDA staff said in a Feb. 22 letter to the Iba clergy.
Bishop Iniguez, though, said “the Church must be on the side of everyone, victims and sinners.” He said that pedophilia must be fought, “but a pedophile is also a human being, and his crime does not give us ground to destroy him.”
PREDA is part of Father Cullen´s 26 years of work with addicts, prostitutes, abused women and children, and people with AIDS in Olongapo. U.S. forces left Subic after the treaty allowing U.S. bases in the Philippines expired in 1991.
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