Friday, February 15, 2008 Prosecutors pushed on Fr. Ejares case
THE lawyer representing five of the seven high school students who lodged a complaint against Fr. Benedicto Ejares wants an update.
Atty. Alvin Butch Cañares said months have passed since he filed the motion for reconsideration on the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor’s resolution dismissing their complaint but, up to now, no ruling has been given.
In an interview Wednesday, he said his motion came with the evaluation of a psychologist they commissioned to evaluate the teenaged victims.
Cañares is a City Hall-paid consultant detailed to the office of Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo.
Ejares, who celebrated a mass inside one of the agencies at the Palace of Justice last December, is charged with seven counts of acts of lasciviousness, child abuse and sexual harassment.
Complaint
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) filed the complaint in April last year, on the basis of the affidavit executed by seven Abellana National School students.
The girls alleged that they were touched inappropriately while Ejares heard their confession during a religious seminar held at the school last Nov. 14, 2006.
During the confession, Ejares allegedly placed his arm around the girls’ shoulders, stroked them on the back of the arm and toyed with the straps of their bras.
One said the priest also commented how good one girl looked and asked her if she had any sexual experience.
Assistant City Prosecutor Fernando Gubalane, in a resolution released last Oct. 3, 2007 and approved by City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon, dismissed the charge on the basis that the priest had no malicious intent.
The prosecutors said it would “require an unreasonable over-stretching of one’s imagination” to conclude that what the priest did was “lascivious and with lewd designs.”
He said Ejares simply had his own style of holding confession.
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.
Distress
The students, through Cañares, filed a motion for reconsideration days after the dismissal and stressed that the allegations cannot be viewed solely on the provisions of the Revised Penal Code, but also pursuant to the significant provisions of the Child Abuse Law.
He then submitted the psychological report prepared by Dr. Frederick Boholst.
Boholst, in the report, said all five of the teenagers were found to have suffered from “considerable psychological distress.”
For two of the girls, the effect was similar to that suffered by victims of poisoning or those who have witnessed classmates die, he said.
One of the girls was diagnosed to have post-traumatic stress disorder and counseling was “highly recommended.”
Article 6, Section 10 of Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Law penalizes any act “prejudicial to a child’s development.” (KNR)
