BishopAccountability.org
	Priest Cleared of Charges He Touched Girls Inappropriately By Jolene Bulambot Inquirer October 3, 2007 http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=92324 CEBU CITY, Philippines--The Cebu City prosecutor's office dismissed on Wednesday a complaint for acts of lasciviousness lodged against a Catholic priest accused of inappropriately touching seven female public high school students during confession in November 2006. Cebu City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon, in a three-page resolution, said there was insufficient evidence to elevate the complaint against Fr. Benedicto Ejares to the Regional Trial Court. Ejares was accused of putting his arms around the third year high school students, caressing their arms and backs and toying with the straps of their bras while hearing their confessions at the Abellana National High School on Nov. 14, 2006. The resolution, however, said it could just have been the priest's style or habit to touch the penitents during confession and noted that the parts of the body touched by Ejares were not even considered private parts. Sellon said "it would ... require an unreasonable overstretching of one's imagination" to conclude that Ejares had "lascivious and ... lewd designs" in touching the girls "in broad daylight and in the midst of several priests and penitents." (The confessions were held at a sports complex and given by five other priests.) Lawyer Antonio Bacalso III, the legal counsel of Ejares, said they were happy the priest was vindicated. He said the priest, in his counter affidavit, had stressed there was no malice involved when he touched the students. Ejares has refused to comment on the case and declined requests for interviews. Ejares, a 1989 graduate of the San Carlos Seminary College in Cebu, was assigned to the Sta. Lucia parish church in Asturias town when he was invited as one of the priests that heard confessions at the ANHS on Nov. 14, 2006, Assistant City Prosecutor Fernando Gubalane, the reviewing officer of the case, ruled in the same resolution that Ejares' actuations during the confession might be inappropriate. However, Gubalane said the prosecutor's office could not file the case of unjust vexation against Ejares even if there was probable cause to elevate it to the court because the crime had prescribed. This meant that the period within which a case could be filed had lapsed. Gubalane cited Article 90 of the Revised Penal Code which stated that crimes such as unjust vexation were light offenses that would prescribe in two months. "The incident occurred on Nov. 14, 2006 and the filing of the complaint was made on April 11, 2007. With this in mind, the crime of unjust vexation had already prescribed. We have to dismiss the two charges," he said. The victims cried foul over the resolution of the city prosecutor. Mae, 16, not her real name, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) on Wednesday that they would demand a re-investigation of the case and called the prosecutor's resolution unfair. The victim, who is now in her senior year at the Abellana National High School (ANHS), said they were surprised that the investigating prosecutor did not give merit to their allegations. "It really hurts and the decision is very unfair. We will ask for a re-investigation and hope that the investigator will not be bias for the priest," she said. Nathaniel Flores, a math instructor at ANHS, expressed frustration over the outcome of the case on Wednesday. Flores said three of the seven victims were his students and he could not understand why their allegations were not given weight by the prosecutor's office. He said many of the students were traumatized and, in fact, some did not enroll last June. "Three of the victims were my students and they confided to me. I believe them and I don't know why their allegations were not considered. I hope the Catholic Church would also do something so that priests will not have an excuse and say what they did was a joke," he said.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.