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	Child Abuse for Fr. Ben By Nilda Gallo Cebu Daily News March 4, 2008 http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20080304-122680/Child-abuse-for-Fr-Ben CEBU CITY, Philippines - The legal troubles of Father Benedicto Zozobrado Ejares are far from over. He faces a serious charge of child abuse for his misconduct while hearing one-on-one confessions of female high school students at a religious seminar in 2006. The Cebu diocesan priest will be charged with one count of violation of Republic Act 7610, a special law that protects children against abuse, exploitation and discrimination. Cebu City Prosecutor Nicholas Sellon reversed the stand of his investigating and reviewing prosecutors who earlier resolved to drop a complaint of acts of lasciviousness filed against Ejares by students of the Abellana National School (ANS). Seven girls filed the complaint last year but Sellon said the separate acts of Ejares were "a result of a single criminal impulse." If convicted, the priest, who has been prohibited by Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal from hearing confession or celebrating Mass in public, faces a jail term of six years and one day to eight years. "The crime of acts of lasciviousness in relation to RA 7610 covers only 'lascivious conduct' whereas the crime of "other acts of abuse" under Section 10 (a) of RA 7610 covers not only lascivious conduct but also other acts of child abuse that are prejudicial to the development of the child like acts, either by word or deed, which debase, degrade or demean the intrinsic worth of dignity of a child as a human being," said Sellon in his resolution. Cebu Daily News called up the priest's lawyer, Antonio Bacalso, on Monday afternoon but his secretary said he was in a meeting and was not available. Ejares had no parish assignment when the incident occurred and has not been given any new one by the cardinal. Since the controversy broke in November 2006, the priest has stayed out of sight. At the height of the scandal, he left for a trip to the United States for a few weeks. Monsignor Adelito Abella, Cebu Archdiocese Chancellor, said Monday he does not know where Ejares was staying. "He is supposedly in Cebu. If he leaves, he has to inform the Chancery or Cardinal Vidal," Abella said. Vidal earlier said he considered the case of Ejares "closed" after the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office dismissed the complaints of lasciviousness filed by ANS students against the priest on October 3, 2007. Ejares was one of six priests who heard confessions of ANS students during a Life in the Spirit seminar sponsored by the Oasis of Love charismatic movement. Seven students, however, complained that the priest put his arms around them, caressed their arms and backs and toyed with their bra straps while hearing their individual confessions at the grandstand of Cebu City Sports Complex on November 14, 2006. But the Department of Social Welfare and Development filed a motion for reconsideration on behalf of the students. The agency said the priest was still liable for child abuse due to the trauma endured by the girls. Attached in the motion was a psychological evaluation report of the seven girls, which was not included in the original complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7). Ejares, through lawyer Bacalso, opposed the DSWD's motion, saying the students did not appear to be suffering from psychological injury because they did not exhibit severe anxiety, depression, withdrawal, or outward aggressive behavior. Prosecutor Sellon disagreed. The city prosecutor said there was sufficient ground to indict the priest for "other acts of abuse" defined under section 10 (a) in relation to Sec. 3 (b) of RA 7610. Section 10 identifies other acts of neglect, abuse, cruelty or exploitation and other conditions prejudicial to the child's development. Sellon said his office earlier dismissed the complaint for acts of lasciviousness in relation to RA 7610 because the acts complained of included touching or stroking the victim's shoulders and forearms, or toying with the straps of their bras. These acts, he added, were not included in the definition of "lascivious conduct" in the implementing rules of RA 7610. But Sellon said these "inappropriate acts, committed by no less than a minister of God and in utter disregard of the solemnity and sanctity of the religious activity are certainly injurious to the moral and spiritual values of these minor children and therefore, prejudicial to their development." He recalled that the students "trembled" and were shocked and nervous by the priest's acts. They became "stiff and felt abused." Under section 3 (b) of 7610, child abuse refers to the maltreatment, whether habitual or not, of the child including psychological and physical abuse, neglect, cruelty, sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment and any act by deeds or words which debases, degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of a child as a human being. Sellon said the priest's "acts cannot just be ignored or brushed aside as merely trivial especially considering the fact that these minor victims obviously never expected to be molested not only at a wrong place and a wrong time but, most of all, by a priest whom they regarded with very high respect." "The situation might have been different if these acts were done by another whom the victims do not, or have no reason to, respect and look up to as a model for virtue, piety and holiness," he added. Sellon said Ejares was liable for one crime of child abuse even if there were seven complainants because the separate acts were a "result of a single criminal impulse." He said there was "substantial uniformity" in the way the priest treated the complainants all third year high school students at 3 p.m. of November 14, 2006 at the grandstand of the Cebu City Sports Complex. The prosecutor noted that the priest committed these acts "one after the other in unbroken succession right on the same chair where the confession was taking place: placing his arm around the complainant's shoulders, moving his hand from the shoulder down to the forearms and inserting his hand inside the sleeves, pinching and tickling the forearms and toying with the straps of the bras." He said the girls even had a "unanimous observation" that the priest, while hearing their confession, "looked like he was just talking to a girlfriend while doing the acts." Ejares, in his counter-affidavit, admitted these actions except for the act of toying with the straps of the bras which he said may have been accidental. The priest said what he did was his own "novel way" of hearing a confession which he had experimented in the past to ease the tension of penitents. The exact whereabouts of Ejares, a 1989 graduate of the San Carlos Seminary College in Cebu, remain unclear. "Ang makatubag ana kana lang mga labing suod na higala niya, mga barkada (The people who can tell where he is are his close friends)," said Abella, chancellor of the Cebu Archdiocese. "He may have some family members whom he is staying with but I really do not know." Abella said the suspension of Ejares' priestly duties remained in place. "He cannot say Mass in public, only in private," said Abella. He said Ejares violated the Cardinal's directive last year when he celebrated Mass at a government office in the Capitol building last year. "He still can not hear confessions," Abella said. Abella said Ejares, his former student at the San Carlos Seminary, had the reputation of a comic in the class. "I have never seen him serious enough. He takes everything as a joke," he said. "In my class though he was serious but probably because he did not want to fail. But I'm sure he was serious in his commitment when he was ordained as a priest," he added. The chancellor said Cardinal Vidal paid for the schooling of Ejares. "Yes, I guess he (Vidal) was disappointed after what happened," Abella said.
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