BishopAccountability.org
	Motion in Ejares Case Gets Stalled Sun.Star October 19, 2007 http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2007/10/19/news/motion.in.ejares.case.gets.stalled.html AFTER previously failing to secure an indictment, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7 almost dropped the ball again on the acts of lasciviousness, harassment and child abuse charges filed against Fr. Benedicto Ejares. Cebu City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon, in a two-page order issued late yesterday, found a "procedural defect" in the motion for reconsideration that DSWD lawyer and Cebu City Councilor Gerry Carillo filed. Sellon, who earlier approved the dismissal of all charges against the priest, hinted that Carillo and his co-counsel Alvin Butch Cañares cannot represent the high school students because they have not been authorized to do so. But instead of throwing away the motion, he gave Carillo and Cañares seven days to correct the lapse by submitting an affidavit of verification signed by the seven Abellana National High School teenagers who complained against the priest. "Considering (that) this defect is merely procedural and can be cured without causing irreparable damage or injury to the substantial rights of the respondent, and mindful of the legal precept that technicalities of the law should not defeat the ends of justice, the complainants should be given chance to correct the error," Sellon said. He also revealed other defects. He said the motion was filed a day after the 10-day deadline but the justice department extended the period to 15 days in July 2000. Takeover Also, the request for the inhibition of Assistant City Prosecutors Fernando Gubalane and Alexander Acosta was anchored solely on their having "penned" the questioned resolution. Sellon denied the motion for inhibition altogether, saying it wasn't "anchored on just and valid grounds." But he announced he is taking over the preliminary investigation because the two subordinate prosecutors have expressed their intent to voluntarily inhibit themselves. Carillo and Cañares submitted the motion for reconsideration last Monday. They argued that the complaint against Ejares should be appraised in light of the Anti-Child Abuse Law because the complainants are minors. In the pleading, the lawyers indicated they will submit transcripts of interviews DSWD social workers had with the complaining teenagers. Alter-ego Cañares, in a previous interview, said they will have psychologists evaluate the transcripts in the meantime. He hopes the transcripts will have more weight than the prosecutors' concept that priests are the alter-ego of Jesus Christ and, thus, can do no wrong. But the pleading, Sellon pointed out, did not contain an affidavit from the private complainants, stating that the motion for reinvestigation was prepared at their urging. Carillo, or his co-counsel, are not considered parties to the case because the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was the one that filed the original complaint last April. Cañares, in an interview last night, said they will correct the defect within the given period. He said he didn't submit one because verifications are required only during the initial pleading, meaning the original complaint against Ejares. 10 days He thought the NBI, the DSWD and the City Government's committee on welfare were the same parties that filed the complaint. NBI Executive Director Ernesto Macabare, in a separate interview, confirmed this, adding that NBI agents, represented by lawyer Renan Oliva and Special Investigator Jed Hife, even had a meeting with DSWD and social welfare committee officials at City Hall. "It was agreed there that Councilor Carillo and Atty. Cañares will prepare the motion for reconsideration for us," Macabare said. Sellon, in the order, also gave Ejares 10 days to file his comment or opposition or any other comprehensive pleading. About 20 high school students had complained that Ejares touched them inappropriately when he heard their confessions during a Life in the Spirit seminar in school. Seven of them filed complaints. But Sellon, approving the recommendation of Gubalane, cleared Ejares of all seven counts of acts of lasciviousness as well as child abuse and sexual harassment. In their ruling, Gubalane said the priest's putting his arms around the penitents' shoulders, touching their arms and backs and toying with their bra straps "was just a matter of routine or habit." It took a stretch of one's imagination, he added, to conclude that what Ejares did in the midst of several students and priests and in broad daylight were "meant to be lascivious and with lewd designs."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.