BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
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the Supreme Court of the Philippines instructed all judges to reopen all cases of child sexual abuse that have been archived and to ask the complainants if they want to continue their cases.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. (To be continued)/PN
