In Bacani’s defense

I received a number of letters sympathizing with Bishop Teodoro Bacani, who has been accused by a secretary of his parish of having embraced her. Women’s groups and columnists who put on a front of being women’s rights advocates have sided with the woman. I am putting out a letter of Joselito Yap, a respected Marian researcher and author and, as he calls himself, "Friend of the Church," to show that there is doubt about the woman’s motive for crucifying the bishop.

"If Bishop Bacani is not cleared of the charge made by his former secretary, it is probably because the report of investigation is not as complete and as objective as it should be. As no one speakers about how the investigation was conducted, it cannot be ascertained if the Bishop had the opportunity to present all witnesses in his defense, if they were able to speak out freely, or if the Bishop had the opportunity to cross-examine his accuser. However, because I consult the office of the Bishop on things I write or say about the Faith, I did my own investigation to determine the truth of the charge against him, and discovered the following:

"(1) The place where the alleged incident supposedly took place has a total floor area of 56 sq.m. It served as the residence of the Bishop, his cook, maid, driver, as well as the office of his staff. The place is adjacent to a park where children play and where adults promenade or sit idly. The incident allegedly took place in the afternoon of March 26, 2003, a time when his staff was at work, the household stayed inside the place in the comfort of air conditioning during that hot afternoon in summer, and visitors walked in and out. That is to say, the circumstances then were such that not even a careless Casanova would attempt to harass a woman.

"(2) It was the accuser that approached the Bishop and embraced him, and pressed her head on the Bishop’s chest, and the Bishop put his arms around her, in similar spirit as when the father embraced his prodigal son.

"(3) The accuser comes from a family that has more than its fair share of the problems in the world. Her parents have no steady means of income. One brother is said to be a drug addict. One sister has a child out of wedlock. Another sister has two criminal cases filed against her for estafa.

"(4) Her mother asked Atty. Pastor Bacani, a brother of the Bishop, to defend in court her daughter who was accused of estafa. Obviously, she did not mind or was not convinced of the charge her other daughter made against the Bishop because she continues to retain the legal services of the Bishop’s brother even after the alleged incident.

"(5) The Bishop had often advised his secretary to stop seeing her boyfriend, because her boyfriend is married. He is separated from his wife, but his marriage to her has not been annulled.

"(6) Various sources reported that her boyfriend, if not the secretary of Manila Auxiliary Bishop Socrates Villegas, works somewhere at an office in Villa San Miguel, residence of Jaime Cardinal Sin.

"7) A former secretary of Bishop Bacani reported that the accuser called her, asking that she join her against the Bishop, but she bluntly replied, ‘Why would I do that!’

"(8) When he said in his statement that his act (of embracing the accuser) was ‘inappropriate‚ as reported in the papers, the Bishop only meant that it was a thing that could be misunderstood or misinterpreted, as in fact it was because a case was made out of it. But in spirit the act was not sinful, because there was no malice in it. That is to say, the Bishop is admitting no guilt. It was ‘inappropriate’ in the same sense that, although it is not a sin, to be wearing short pants or a sleeveless shirt is inappropriate in receiving Holy Communion.

"Evidently, Bishop Bacani is clean as a whistle. More than he, the integrity of his accuser should be scrutinized. Her sensibility to judge an innocent act to be sexual harassment is, to say the least, highly questionable. Why, can’t bishops and priests embrace people? Are they bakla or gay, if they embrace men, are they guilty of sexual harassment if they embrace women, and pedophiles if they embrace children? When my family was at the Vatican to join the celebration of the Year of the Family, the Holy Father embraced my wife and three daughters, one after the other, as they were allowed to approach His Holiness. Was that sexual harassment, or what we call, ‘chancing?’

"The Church cannot just listen to anybody throwing accusations on her pastors without being sure of the integrity of the accuser or even imbeciles should be needed. If the Church permits that, she could run out of worthy pastors.

"Of course the Bishop should be investigated because he was charged. However, there appearing to be no real harm inflicted on the accuser to motivate her to cause so much damage to the Bishop, and because she asked another to join her against the Bishop, conspiracy to deliberately shoot this star of the Church comes under suspicion. Therefore, that, too, must be investigated."

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Another letter of support for the bishop was e-mailed by Sabsy Palanca, Commissioner for Business and Industry, National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, and chair, women’s Business Council of the Philippines and founder and CEO, Bridging Gaps Foundation. Here’s Sabsy’s letter:

"I am a member of the Salt and Light of Christ Community. I am also involved with the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, for which I served as the first chair of the steering committee of the Global Compact Initiative and the chair of the 2002 conference and exhibition.

"Global Compact Initiative is a UN call for private business to be involved in the promotion of its nine principles which call for respect for human, labor, women’s, and environmental rights. The convention aimed to draw up a plan for the GCI to be embraced in the community levels.

"With the endorsement of our then presiding elder, Roger Mina, and accompanied by Epi Ocampo, I saw Bishop Ted Bacani and invited him to be a panelist in the convention. Bishop Bacani agreed to go to the convention even if that day was his day off.

"The Bishop had the shortest comment among the speakers. As a matter of fact, he uttered but a few sentences. He talked about the sanctity of labor, being outputs of human beings. Many comments were received, saying that what he said was short but cut deep.

"It is not solely the efficacy of his short comments that I wish to stress His agreeing to be part of the convention was a strategic move in what Epi and I wanted to accomplish, i.e. to involve the Church in the multi-sectoral groups we wanted to form in the community levels. His presence during the convention made a statement that the Church cared about labor, women and children‚s rights.

"Proof of his being a well-liked speaker was that he was invited, later that year, to be a speaker n the even yet bigger conference, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Annual Business Conference.

"I had the privilege of seeing, listening and or talking to Bishp Bacani on several occasions after that, during the World Meeting of Families last January. He exhibited the same demeanor as I saw during the EFOP convention – sharp, humble, unassuming, sincere, caring.

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