Fiscal says priest should be charged

Cebu City prosecutor Nicolas Sellon has overturned the recommendation of assistant prosecutors dropping the criminal complaint filed against Roman Catholic priest Benedicto Ejares.

Sellon also ordered that Fr. Ejares be indicted before the court for other acts of abuse and cruelty against children.

Seven high school students filed criminal complaints against Ejares for alleged inappropriate behavior committed while hearing a confession during a Life in the Spirit seminar conducted at the Abellana National School on November 14, 2006. Sellon personally reviewed the resolution penned by assistant prosecutors Fernando Gubalane and Alexander Acosta after Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo requested that they inhibit from taking part in any proceedings related to the motion for reconsideration of their resolution that earlier dismissed the case.

Gubalane and Acosta earlier dismissed the complaint for acts of lasciviousness in relation to Republic Act 7610 on the ground that the acts complained of, namely, the touching or stroking of the complainant’s shoulders and forearms, or the toying of the straps of their bras, or questions as to whether they had already experience with their boyfriends, are acts which are not specifically included in the definition of lascivious conduct.

Ejares did not deny that he committed the acts complained of, except for the toying with the straps of the bras which, according to him, might just have been accidental.

He admitted that what he did was his novel way of hearing a confession which, he had already experimented in the past in order to ease the tension of the penitents.

Sellon said, Ejares’ acts were just the result of a single criminal impulse, hence, he should be held liable for one crime only.

Ejares had argued that the charge for violation of Other Acts of Abuse under section 10 of Republic Act 7610 will no longer prosper in view of the earlier dismissal of the charge of acts of lasciviousness.

But Sellon said the actuations of the priest as narrated by the complainants in their affidavits are acts, which are not specifically included in the definition of lascivious conduct.

Of the 20 students who reported that they have been touched inappropriately by the priest, only seven of them executed sworn statements that became the bases of the complaints.

One student said she saw Ejares place his hands on the shoulders of the penitent ahead of her. The priest then “toyed” with a strap of the penitent’s bra.

The student said that when it was her turn to confess, Ejares did the same and even pinched and tickled her forearm.

Ejares also argued that the complainants do not appear to be suffering from psychological injury as they had not exhibited severe anxiety, depression, withdrawal or outward aggressive behavior as a result of that incident.

But Sellon said that the mere absence of any psychological injury to the child-victims is not a legal obstacle to the filing of the charge for Other Acts of Abuse. It is expected that the case would be filed before the court anytime this week.

Reacting to the decision of Sellon to indict Ejares before the court, the Cebu Archbishop’s Palace spokesman Msgr. Achilles Dacay said “Let justice be done. Let the wheel of justice turn.”

Dacay said he do not know the whereabout of Ejares because the latter was not given any assignment. — with reports from Ferliza Contratista/NLQ