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Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Police also ignored complaint: ex-altar boy
By Karlon N. Rama
CHURCH officials allegedly were not the only ones who ignored the child abuse complaint former altar boy Michal Gatchalian filed against Fr. Apolinario Mejorada.
In the affidavit he attached to his Jan. 14, 2003 complaint against the Order of St. Augustine (OSA) priest before the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor, Gatchalian said even the police gave him the cold shoulder.
Gatchalian said he reported the abuses done by Mejorada against him to the police through Senior Insp. Norma Corbo of the PNP child welfare desk.
He said he met Corbo, through Pablita Toring, last June 19 and that their meeting was also attended by lawyer Nina Valenzona.
In the meeting, he was assured that the settlement he had made with Mejorada’s family would not stop him from pursuing a criminal case against the priest.
Corbo proceeded to take down his sworn statement, saying that once his statements were recorded, Mejorada would now have to face him.
He said he had another appointment with Corbo on July 10. It was there where Corbo admitted not having placed his statements on record for fear that she would be sued because of the existing settlement.
Corbo, he said, instead asked him to go see a psychiatrist.
The Augustinian priests at the basilica have declined from commenting on the case, saying only their high officials can issue statements. Mejorada himself has not issued any statement.
Gatchalian, along with three others, was met with hostility when they first surfaced with allegations of child abuse against Mejorada in July last year.
He said some priests were hostile and accused them of trumping up charges to extort money from the former rector of the Basilica del Sto. Niño.
In their affidavit to the Jan. 14 complaint, the former altar boys also said OSA officials tried to cover up the incident.
They were also made to believe that the order had already taken action by dismissing the priest from the order and sending him to rehabilitation, only to see the priest waiving at them from one of the basilica’s windows a few weeks after.
(January 21, 2003 issue)
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