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The struggle for justice for victims of child sexual abuse

Recently, the Supreme Court of the Philippines instructed all judges to reopen all cases of child sexual abuse that have been archived and to ask the complainants if they want to continue their cases. If not, these will be provisionally dismissed.

Court records across the nation reveal that hundreds, if not thousands, of child sex abuse cases are archived. This means trials for these cases cannot proceed because the suspects are yet to be arrested. The court issues an arrest warrant for the suspect that is usually unserved. Some cases are provisionally dismissed when the child victims are prevented from attending the court hearings to testify against their alleged abusers. That is because the abuser’s relatives conspire to abduct the child or prevent him or her from attending the hearing.

This is why there is a great need for child therapeutic protection homes to be established and supported by the government. Judges in Cebu have asked the Preda Foundation to establish one such home in the province to protect the many child abuse victims who “disappear” or are not allowed to testify by relatives who are protecting the rapist in their families. That reality is a shocking indictment of Philippine society, where moral decay has accelerated since low-cost internet and mobile phones became available and online child sexual abuse proliferated.

This is a challenge to the chief of the Philippine National Police, Gen. Rommel Marbil, known for his efficient command and success in a long and distinguished career. He was appointed general in April, and he is faced with the challenge of getting his police officers to arrest suspected child sex abusers at large with hundreds of warrants still unserved. These criminals are at large and likely raping and abusing children every day. Police inaction can allow these crimes against children to happen. Child sexual abuse and pedophilia are like an addiction to those committing or engaging in them: once they start, they can’t stop until they are arrested, convicted and jailed for life, as the law demands.

This incompetence from a previous administration and former police commanders is a huge embarrassment for the Philippines. Is this because some of these commanders are incapable of investigating the relatives, neighbors and contacts of the alleged child abusers and serving the arrest warrants? Prosecutors should also submit motions to the judges to confiscate the mobile phones of close associates of the accused to be examined for information that could lead to the suspects’ arrest.

The utter moral failure of the relatives of child rapists to denounce the crime committed against their own children and bring charges is a serious one. Yet, with help, justice can prevail. One abused child is Alma (not her real name), who was only 6 in 2011 when she was raped by her maternal uncle Paulo Alovera. She was left alone in the house of her grandmother. When he arrived and saw her, he brought her inside the grandmother’s room, where he raped her. She did not know then that what happened to her was abuse or a crime. Years later, Alma told her mother and other relatives about it, but the mother got angry and accused her child of lying. However, the mother confronted her brother and his family about it. They admitted the crime and paid Alma’s family P60,000, which her parents accepted and used for the medical needs of her seriously ill younger brother.

Alma also learned from a younger cousin, Martha, that Alovera also raped her when she was 4 in 2013. He used candy to entice her to come close to him. He then grabbed her and brought her to his room, where he raped her. At that age, she was frightened and unable to tell anyone.

In September 2022, a class discussion about child abuse and rape triggered Alma to recall her own rape, and she broke down in tears. Her teacher brought her to the guidance counselor, who happened to be a highly trained former staff member of the Preda Foundation and immediately supported Alma. She disclosed to the counselor what her uncle had done to her and Martha. The guidance counselor then referred them both to the Preda home for abused children. Together with a local social worker, the counselor rescued both children in Olongapo City and put them under the home’s protective custody. They soon began therapy and later became self-confident and empowered.

After a while, they filed separate legal complaints against their uncle. Despite much pressure from their mothers, who had been already paid off to remain silent, they testified powerfully against him. In September 2024, Alovera was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt and given two life sentences by Judge Gemma Theresa Hilario-Logronio for statutory rape. In her decision, Logronio said the two girls were able to justify the delay in filing the case because they were so young when the rapes happened, they had repressed their memories of them, and they didn’t know that what their uncle did to them was rape. The passage of time does not eliminate the crime, although some countries pass laws with “statutes of limitation” that prevent criminal cases from being filed after a number of years have passed. These laws deny justice to the victims and protect the abuser. They should be abolished.

Likewise, archived cases should remain active until the suspected child abuser is arrested. It is the police’s incompetence and lack of commitment that allows criminals to roam free and abuse more children. Law enforcers’ failure to interview the abusers’ relatives and other contacts who know where he is hiding is where the justice system is failing. Such relatives and friends are helping to obstruct justice. This is where we all hope that Marbil will make a profound difference for the better.

Dozens of unserved arrest warrants are awaiting the PNP chief’s powerful intervention. Let us support the enforcement of laws, and the attainment of justice for children be seen as being done.

END


This column was first published in The Sunday Times (www.manilatimes.net) on October 6, 2024. Print, digital, and online republication of this column without the written consent of the author and of The Manila Times is strictly forbidden.

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Fr. Shay Cullen

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About the Founder
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Fr. Shay Cullen

Shay Cullen is a Missionary priest from Ireland, a member of the Missionary Society of St. Columban and Founder and President of Preda Foundation since 1975.

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