Saturday, November 17, 2007 For 2 students, level of trauma comparable to that suffered by poisoning victim By Karlon N. Rama Sun.Star Staff Reporter
HE MAY, in the words of government prosecutors, have been the “alter ego of Jesus Christ.” But to five teenage girls he allegedly “touched,” confession with Fr. Benedicto Ejares was anything but a divine encounter.
In a report signed by Dr. Frederick Boholst and submitted to the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor yesterday, all five of the teenagers were found to have suffered from “considerable psychological distress.”
For two of the girls, the psychologist’s report revealed, the effect was similar to that suffered by victims of poisoning or those who have witnessed classmates die.
One of the girls was diagnosed to have post-traumatic stress disorder and counseling was “highly recommended.”
The psychological report was submitted to support the five complaining teenagers’ motion for reconsideration against the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor’s dismissal of the complaint against the priest.
Ejares was slapped with seven counts of acts of lasciviousness, child abuse and sexual harassment charges on the basis of affidavit-complaints the teenagers submitted to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
The girls, high school students of the Abellana National School, said the priest heard their confession as part of a Life in the Spirit Seminar last Nov. 14, 2006.
During their time with the priest, Ejares allegedly placed his arm around their shoulders, stroked them on the back of the arm and toyed with the straps of their baby bras.
One said the priest also made comments on how good she looked and asked whether or not she’s had any experience in sex.
Assistant City Prosecutor Fernando Gubalane, with the concurrence of City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon, recommended the dismissal of the charge on the basis that there was no intent on the part of the priest.
They said it would “require an unreasonable overstretching of one’s imagination” to conclude that what Ejares did in the midst of several students and priests and in broad daylight were “meant to be lascivious and with lewd designs.”
In a subsequent interview, Gubalane gave another reason for the dismissal—there was nothing in the complaint to support the allegation that the incident had any impact on the psychological development of the girls.
Article 6, Section 10 of Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Law penalizes any act “prejudicial to a child’s development.”
Integrity
The complainants—represented by lawyer Alvin Butch Cañares—filed their motion for reconsideration. It was initially dismissed over a technicality.
Boholst’s report took into account the sworn statement of the complaints to the NBI, the interview by the Department of Social Welfare and Development when the girls were first brought to them and the psychometric exam and other tests the girls underwent.
In his findings on one particular girl, Boholst, a clinical psychologist by profession and the former chairman of the University of San Carlos Department of Psychology, noted that the girl had been “exposed to a situation that threatened her psychological integrity.”
“She felt the act of the priest was repulsive, embarrassing, shame-causing and a disgrace to the priesthood,” he said.
She had “symptoms indicative of a post-traumatic stress disorder, which slowly alleviated six months after the incident,” Boholst said.
