Cebu priest draws flak for ‘humiliating’ teenage single mom

CEBU, Philippines – A priest in Mandaue City has drawn flak from netizens for reportedly scolding a 17-year-old single mother who wanted her one-month-old child baptized last Sunday.

A video of the incident, taken by the teenager’s 12-year-old sister, has gone viral. It had been shared on Facebook almost 20,000 times as of Monday night.

The priest was identified as Fr. Romeo Obach, but the name of the child’s mother is being withheld because she is a minor.

The chapel is reportedly affiliated with the Redemptorist Church in Cebu City and the baptism was attended by 50 people, including the girl’s family, relatives and classmates. Barangay officials were also reportedly present.

Obach yesterday apologized over the incident. “I deeply regret I have done this. I only realized how cruel my ways to educate and impart lessons for the event...,” he said in a statement on the CBCPNews website.

To the public, he said, “I am deeply sorry and I humbly ask your forgiveness.”  

In an official statement also posted on CBCPNews, Redemptorist media liaison Fr. Alfonso Suico Jr. said an “internal investigation is underway” on Obach’s conduct.

He said “appropriate sanctions” will be applied once the investigation is complete so that “justice may prevail.”

He said the Redemptorist community in Cebu was deeply saddened by the incident. “As a religious community we do not condone such an unacceptable act as it is contrary to the charism and mission for which our congregation was founded – compassion especially to the poor and the most abandoned. We sincerely feel for the family and to them we extend our heartfelt apology,” he added.

He said they would also try to reach out to the aggrieved family at an appropriate time. “We respect their situation at the moment and sympathize with their hurt and anger over this matter,” he said.

Suico said the Redemptorist community has always upheld the rights of the poor and disenfranchised since the first missionaries arrived in Cebu in 1906.

On Obach, Suico said, “It is but unfortunate that the incident involving Fr. Obach occurred, as he has been a good missionary for many years. He has served in many capacities and various places heeding the challenges of the congregation, yet he is also human and prone to lapse of judgment and imprudence.”

In an interview with The Freeman Monday, the girl’s mother, a barangay tanod (watchwoman), said they were embarrassed about what happened but her husband decided they would just finish the ceremony.

She said her daughter is enrolled in a local university and is not a troubled child. The pregnancy was an accident and her daughter reportedly attempted to end her life last March after her boyfriend who got her pregnant left her for another girl, she said.

After the suicide attempt, the girl got psychological intervention at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

The mother said they could not understand why the priest had to scold her daughter in public, considering they paid all the baptismal fees. – Christell Fatima Tudtud, Jessa Agua, Edwin Ian Melecio/Freeman, Evelyn Macairan