Thursday, January 11, 2007 Dakay concerned about damaged reputation, what’s next By Aledel G. Cuizon Sun.Star Staff Reporter
INSTEAD of easing concern over the case, the complainant’s decision to drop her child abuse charge against Fr. Joey Belciña has left the Cebu Archdiocese with more questions.
“What do we do? Palabyon na lang nato ni? (Do we just let this pass)?” Cebu archdiocesan media liaison officer Msgr. Achilles Dakay said. “I cannot understand, I am not yet at ease with what’s happening... Some names have been destroyed, some honor.”
“If allegations are proven false, unsaon man nato (what do we do then)?”
When asked if the Cebu Archdiocese will advise Belciña to file a suit for damages, Dakay said he does not want to comment on the issue, only that he had a lot of questions.
He is also not keen on defending Belciña, saying, “Why do I have to defend him? He can defend himself.”
Dakay said he hopes both parties will not just “move on” but “learn something” as well from the experience.
“We hope for character change...but it should not be limited to behavior, we also have to improve our reporting,” the church’s liaison officer added.
Personnel
Whether Belciña can go back as parish priest of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Barangay Maslog, Danao City, will depend on the personnel committee of the Church.
Belciña was accused of raping one of his female scholars last year. But a panel of prosecutors found probable cause to file only a child abuse case, because the girl was a minor during one of the encounters. The prosecutors said the sex had evidently been consensual.
Defense lawyer Gloria Lastimosa-Dalawampu remained confident they would have been able to prove that no child abuse was committed.
She said she was ready to fight the case in court.
The 19-year-old complainant has asked the court to dismiss the child abuse case against Belciña. She testified on the matter last Tuesday. The matter is up for resolution by Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Manuel Patalinghug.
The complainant said she wants to “move on.”
The defense, through collaborating counsel Sheilamar Saliganan, objected to the motion to dismiss.
Dalawampu clarified that they want the case dismissed, but the defense also wants to manifest that the motion was without their consent.
That apology
Sun.Star Cebu asked if this was intended to answer insinuations of a settlement. Dalawampu explained they were not even aware of the filing of the motion to dismiss.
She is also not privy to any settlement, particularly a reported agreement amounting to P300,000.
Dalawampu said she has not talked with Belciña yet.
She explained, though, that the public apology that Belciña made in front of parishioners on New Year’s Eve was an apology to the parishioners and not the complainant.
“There was no mention of the complainant, he was asking for forgiveness from the parishioners for the hassle...when he said that ‘to err is human,’ he was referring to his involvement in non-religious activities,” Dalawampu said. She did not expound.
But Provincial Board Member Agnes Magpale confirmed that a public apology was a demand from the complainant’s family.
She received a call informing her that Belciña was scheduled to apologize during a mass at 10 a.m. last Dec. 31. She attended, along with the complainant’s family.
Support
Magpale said that she did not disapprove of the woman’s decision, since the role of the Provincial Women’s Committee (PWC), which Magpale heads, is to only provide the complainant with legal assistance.
“We did not influence her, but we assured her that for as long as she continued with the case, we would help her finish it,” said Magpale.
She would not comment on the reported P300,000 settlement, but said that it would be more practical if the complainant was paid.
“Wala ko kakitag kwarta pero angayan lang. Her father is a carpenter who had to stop working just so he could support his daughter’s case,” said Magpale.
Since the complaint was filed early last year, the complainant has been seeing a psychologist through the efforts of the PWC.
Magpale told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday that the woman’s rehabilitation is going great and the psychologist has given her a “clean bill of mental health.”
