Review of Cebu priest’s case sought

CEBU CITY — Dissatisfied that an Augustinian priest was cleared of lasciviousness and child abuse charges, a non-government organization is now moving for the case to be reviewed.

The Children’s Legal Bureau filed a motion for reconsideration with the prosecutor’s office the other day to review its findings clearing Fr. Apolinario Mejorada of charges of acts of lasciviousness under the anti-child abuse law.

The Children’s Legal Bureau found the dismissal to have "missed the point of the law."

Former altar boy Michael Gatchalian and another altar boy accused Mejorada of having molested them while they were in their late teens by touching and playing with their genitals as they watched a movie during an out-of-town trip.

The case was first recommended to be formally filed in court, but the decision was reversed when it was reviewed.

Mejorada’s dismissal was anchored on three issues, namely, motive, "mathematical technicality" of a minor and psychological injury.

The prosecutor found Gatchalian to have "come to court with dirty hands" that put his motive in filing the case into question.

Gatchalian had accepted settlement money from Mejorada amounting to some P200,000. Because of this, the prosecutor questioned his motive in filing the case almost five years after the incident.

The Children’s Legal Bureau thinks that this argument is a "preposterous appreciation of the law" because it convicted Gatchalian of "having dirty hands" without establishing the probable cause to bring Mejorada to trial.

The bureau said the prosecutor had "turned the table of investigation" to Gatchalian instead of Mejorada.

On the issue of "mathematical technicality," the city prosecutor cleared Mejorada because although Gatchalian was a minor based on the mathematical computation of his age, his discernment belies his being a minor because he signed a letter demanding money from the priest.

The bureau criticized the argument of "mathematical technicality" as "outside the scope of the law."

It added that the legislative intent of the prosecutor should be to provide Gatchalian and the other altar boy with special protection. — Freeman News Service