Former Guam delegate candidate says he was molested by current Guam priest

By Haidee V Eugenio
Pacific Daily News
June 28, 2016

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2016/06/28/former-guam-delegate-candidate-says-he-molested-current-guam-priest/86454178/

Jonathan Diaz speaks during a Guam delegate candidates' forum at the Outrigger Guam Resort in August 2012.

A former candidate for Guam delegate told senators on Monday he was the first victim of clergy sexual abuse to come forward in Guam.

Jonathan Frank Blas Diaz testified before island lawmakers on Bill 326-33, a new measure that would lift the time limit on filing a lawsuit against a child molester.

“Nobody believed me,” Diaz said.

Diaz ran for Guam delegate in the 2012 election and entered the 2014 gubernatorial race as a write-in.

Diaz said he publicly spoke about his abuse as early as 1991 and up to when he testified in 2011 on a previous bill, which became law and gave victims of child sexual abuse a two-year window to file a lawsuit.

Members of the community called him “mentally ill” because he is a “bisexual man,” he said.

“Why bisexual? Because I was molested when I was 7 years old by an older cousin, and I was molested again when I was 13 years old and molested again when I was over the age of 16,” Diaz told senators.

He said he was “taken advantage of” by a seminarian when he was a 13-year-old altar server.

The same seminarian, who later became a priest, molested him again when he was 16 years old at the Father Duenas Minor Seminary, Diaz said.

After his address to lawmakers on Monday, Diaz told Pacific Daily News seminary leaders asked the person who molested him not to continue with priesthood, but the archbishop told them “no, we’re gonna ordain him.”

Diaz didn’t want to disclose the identity of the seminarian or the priest he said molested him as a teen.

Guam lawmakers temporarily gave victims of child sexual abuse a two-year limit to file a lawsuit, and that window has closed.

Diaz on Tuesday said he tried to file a lawsuit against his molester, when Public Law 31-07 was in effect, but he said no lawyer wanted to take his case.

“The only lawyer who was willing to take up my case was disbarred,” Diaz said.

The disbarment didn’t have to do, however, with his planned lawsuit against the seminarian who is now a parish priest in Guam, he said.

He said he also reached out to the Office of the Attorney General but he didn’t get the representation he said he wanted.

Diaz said amendments made prior to the bill becoming Public Law 31-07 made it essentially “impossible” or difficult for lawyers in Guam to represent victims like him.

He said senators should be investigated for watering down Vice Speaker Benjamin Cruz’s original bill, which was supposed to make it easy for victims to sue their perpetrators.

Diaz said he will identify his perpetrator publicly once he gets legal representation and that a new law lifting the statute of limitation is already in place.

Former Sen. Robert Klitzkie, in his testimony on Bill 326-33 on Monday, also pointed out that provisions of Public Law 31-07 discouraged counsel from undertaking the representation of sexual abuse survivors.

He cited as an example a provision that states, “A violation of this Section shall constitute unprofessional conduct, and shall be grounds for discipline against the attorney,” which Klitzkie said is “either dangerous or superfluous.”

“It’s clearly unnecessary,” he added.

Klitzkie said the Guam Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11 already provides for high ethical standards for attorneys in all litigation.

He said the Guam Rules of Professional Conduct already provide high ethical standards for all aspects of the practice of law.

“Our Supreme Court is the enforcer of ethical standards for attorneys assisted by the Bar of Guam Ethics Committee pursuant to Rules of Procedures—Disciplinary Proceedings,” he added.

Diaz also said the Archdiocese of Agana has known who his perpetrator is, and he said he would want the archdiocese to be the one to disclose the name of his perpetrator.

He said he knew his perpetrator, when he was still a seminarian, was also abused by a priest within the Archdiocese of Agana.

At the time, he said the Church’s sexual abuse response coordinator was reaching out to him but he said he decided not to come forward, because there was no law yet that would even allow him to file a lawsuit against his perpetrator.

He did try to get in touch with the Archdiocese of Agana’s sexual abuse response coordinator, but was unsuccessful, he said.

He said on Monday he recommended that lawmakers add a third year to the previous bill giving a two-year window to file lawsuits against child molesters.

In 2014, John Toves, an altar boy in Agat in the 1970s, publicly accused Apuron of molesting his cousin. But that cousin of his didn’t come forward.

The four individuals who came forward between May and June this year to accuse a clergy of molesting altar boys in Agat in the 1970s named Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron as the one they’re accusing.

Diaz said he supports the four individuals and their families who recently came forward to accuse Apuron of sexual abuse.

“I was trying to prepare our community for this kind of explosion and nobody believed Jonathan Diaz. So what is there to do? I am stuck again because once I said ‘yes’ to your bill, I’m covering up for your ‘no’. If I say ‘no’ to this bill, I’m calling these guys a liar. That’s not my intention. My intention is that my abuser was also abused by other individuals and we must target the cycle of abuse,” Diaz said. “Perhaps and I don’t know, I’m not here to defend the archbishop, but could be possible that even the archbishop was molested when he was a kid.”

Apuron is currently out of Guam. The Vatican temporarily stripped Apuron of his administrative authority over the Archdiocese of Agana but he remains the archbishop and he has not been charged of any crime.

Pope Francis sent Archbishop Savio Hon Tai Fai to temporarily lead the Catholic church in Guam.

In a recent statement, Hon said all relevant documentation received by the church related to sex abuse allegations “has been duly sent to the Holy See, which has final authority in cases related to Bishops.”

In the June 26 statement, Hon collectively named accusers Walter Denton, Doris Concepcion, Roy Quintanilla and Roland Sondia. Hon also offered his personal prayers for all parties involved.

Sondia and Concepcion said as of Monday this week, they have yet to receive any communication from the Vatican or the Archdiocese of Agana regarding their accusation against Apuron or simply just to reach out.