TAGUM (PHILIPPINES)
Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News) [Hong Kong]
September 29, 2011
By Frinston Lim, Tagum City
Long-running case again thrown out by judge for lack of probable cause
A regional trial court in Compostela Valley yesterday dismissed a rape case concerning a 26-year old woman against a Catholic priest, reversing an order from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to have him indicted. The judger ruled against the DOJ order to file the rape case against Father Melvin Dela Cuesta of the Diocese of Tagum before the court, affirming the previous ruling of two provincial prosecutors who had dismissed the case in 2006 for lack of probable cause. In August DOJ Undersecretary Leah Tanodra-Armamento ordered the refiling of charges. Fr Dela Cuesta after the hearing, refused interviews. “Talk to my lawyer,” the priest said. The woman, a former part-time clerk of St Therese of the Child Jesus parish in Nabunturan, Tagum diocese said the priest had called her to massage him inside his room the night of July 23, 2006 after he arrived from a party drunk and tired. She said that due to tiredness, she fell asleep and was woken when the priest allegedly started abusing her. “I resisted but was overpowered,” the woman said before she burst into tears. She stepped out of the courtroom briefly when she spotted the accused priest. Prosecution lawyer Luwill Al-ag cited the report that Fr Dela Cuesta sought forgiveness from the complainant’s father, asserting this indicated an admission of guilt. “The sex could be consensual,” the defence countered. Her eyes welling with tears, the woman said after the ruling: “I’m feeling hopeless. I’m feeling very weak.”