pred a

Issue #1 Volume #1 August 2011

The Man behind PREDA

Fr. Shay Cullen

Since 1 969, Father Shay Cullen has been fighting for women, children, and human rights in the Philippines. A Missionary priest from the Missionary Society of St. Columban, Father Shay has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize Award and other Human Rights Awards for his worldwide cause of defending human rights. Though a Catholic priest, his mission for justice and peace is open to people of different religious faiths. For him, it is all about taking a stand for each persons human right and protecting their identity, specially of exploited women and children. Born on March 27, 1 943 in Dublin, Ireland, Father Shay, for his education, attended the Presentation College in Glasthule, County Dublin. He then went on to attend college at St. Columbans, located at Delgan Park, Navan, Ireland. Right after being ordained as a priest in April of 1 969, Father Shay was assigned to parishes in Zambales and Olongapo City. But it wasnt until 1 974 that Father Shay established the PREDA Foundation in Olongapo City. The main goal of establishing this foundation is to promote human rights, justice, and peace. He pushes to eliminate child abuse in the country and promote respect for childrens rights. All this had lead Father Shay to establish the Twelve Projects of PREDA, their flagship program for fighting for their cause. The goal of this are to educate for peace, free children from brothels and jails, to give them a chance to recover in their therapeutic homes, and to live a happier life free from jails, brothels, abusers, traffickers, violence, and abuse. Father Shays cause has reached a worldwide audience and he had successful campaigns against trafficking and women and child abuse not only in the Philippines but also in other countries like Germany. Because of his dedication to the cause, he and his team have helped to bring many abusers to justice. His fight has led him to confront sex mafias; he learned to live with death threats and had even overcome an assassination attempt. On his spare time, Father Shay writes a weekly column in The Manila Times, writes poetry, and songs. He is often seen in speaking engagements regarding the issues of human trafficking and human rights violations. He penned an autobiography entitled Passion and Power, and was even translated into German.

Child Abuse Report

To come up with a baseline data, 708 cases from city and regional offices of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Health (DOH), the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Exploitation Division of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and a number of regional trial courts were gathered. The cases were recorded in 11 cities: Metro Manila . Angeles, San Fernando and Baguio in Luzon; Bacolod, Tacloban, and Cebu in the Visayas; and Genral Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Zamboanga in Mindanao. The findings show that rape is the most common form of sexual abuse. Of all the rape cases handled by the DSWD, an alarming 66.9 percent involved minors forced to have intercourse with their aggressors. This type of case made up 77.3 percent of the cases recorded in the PNP; 36.4 percent in the courts; and 27.3 percent in the DOH. The victims, on the average, were 11 Years old and living with their families or surrogate families at the time of the abuse. 35 percent of the victims were either street kids, prostitutes, runaways that were neglected, abandoned, or in conflict with the law. One psychiatrist said that though most victims were girls, there were also male victims. The boys, according to her, were "no less traumatized but often overlooked when it comes to case detection." She also said that the degree of abuse was determined by the "manner of abuse, number of abuse episodes, number of abusers and relationship of the victims were abused several times by a single abuser. It is important to establish the identity of the abuser because this "could sometimes be more significant than the act inflicted on the child," the CFSI said. This is because "the identity of the abuser could significantly affect the way the chid copes with the abuse experience." The abusers, in turn, were on average, aged 34 years old and in most instances (82.1 percent) known to the child. Having relatives as perpetrators of the abused discourages victims from reporting the incidents to the authorities, even to social workers. This is mainly because of "shame, famliy or societal pressure not to report, and cultural and religious norms that discourage disclosure to others." Whats also frustrating is that when victims finally get the courage to go to law enforcement agencies for help, they are subjected to intensive questions by untrained investigators. Also, many claim that the health and social welfare departments also fail to document fully the treatment and general assistance efforts. In a recent visit to Manila, United Nations consultant Laura Skolnik said that the UN agency had "no time frame" for eliminating child abuse in Asian countries, including the Philippines. We're just working on it," she said, through awareness, prevention and protection activities, for government and NGO workers here are being trained.The important thing ,she said, is for the public "to adopt a mind frame that's possible - that it is, in fact, possible to eliminate child abuse.

Australian nabbed in raid of "sex joints" in Angeles City

Last Tuesday, an Australian national, Terrence James Smith, was arrested by the police after being investigated of managing a night club and using it as a sex joint in the city of Angeles, Pampanga. According to PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao Jr., allegations against Terrence James Smith was proven after a female sex worker at Sunshine Bar in Angeles City confirmed that he was indeed the bar's floor manager. The raid was conducted by elements of the PNP-CIDG and the Department of Justice's Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking. Two other raids were also conducted last night, and this time, the two sex joints are believed to be owned by an Irish fugitive Richard Douglas Agnew. Unfortunately, the authorities were not able to arrest the said Irish owner of the sex joints since he was not present during the said raid. In a more positive note, Pagdilao stated that 1 00 female sex workers were rescued during the said raids of the three night clubs that were conducted. He also claimed that the raid was a proof of the country being committed to its fight against human trafficking. Lastly, the United States, last Tuesday has removed the Philippines from "its Tier 2 human trafficking watch list" for being able to convict a number of human traffickers this past year.

Save the children, reform the system

It is good to hear that despite of all the problems in the Philippine courts and prosecution system, when the judges surprisingly gave out an order that the children who were trafficked, raped and abused must be returned to their procurers by the abuse of the Habeas Corpus law, judges with good hearts decided to allow the release of minors from their prisons for them to transfer to rehabilitation centres.

In campaigning for the freedom of children whose human rights are violated in prison, PREDA Foundation' social workers were able to rescue hundreds of minors, with the help of the court judges who implement the Juvenile Justice and Welfare law. This means that children under 15 years of age will not be criminally charged, rather, they will be sent to rehabilitation centers to go through programmes that include counselling and character formation. This is also done while the waiting for the decision of the prosecutor. Furthermore, this is to protect the minors from being influenced by hardened criminals even though they don't stay with them in a same cell. Yes, Preda believes that kids who make mistakes need to be disciplined. Someone needs to teach them that what they are doing is not right. Also, they should learn to face the consequences of their wrong actions. However, criminally charging them and putting them in jails, together with adult hardened criminals, is not the right way to help these kids change for the better. These kids need help, not punishment. At a very young age, punishing them will not really bring positive change in their lives. This might even make them more rebellious and violent. Proper caring and counselling is what they need and that is what the Preda foundation is fighting for in this country.

A Bright Shining Moment

It was on May 7, 2010 that the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)raided an apartment in Olongapo and found a den of iniquity money, computers, a gun, video cameras, memory sticks and a pregnant young teenage girl lying in bed with a man more who looks twice her age. In there, was also the said man's father. These men are AmericanFilipinos who have been having a 15 and 16 year old sisters under their power and influence since these girls were about 10 years of age. Medical evidence has proven that the 16 year old girl has been used as a sex slave and is actually pregnant at the moment of the raid. Her sister was able to run away from the sex den to seek help and protection from the Preda social workers. Fortunately for her, she was able to tell their sad and disturbing story to them. According to her story, the apartment was filled with evidences (pictures and videos in hard disks and laptops) that would prove that sexual exploitation, child pornography, sexualization, and exploitation of children are being done in the said apartment. The Assistant Secretary of Justice saw the photos that show the main suspect with the child lying on a bed in the said apartment surrounded by thousands of US dollars and Philippine peso, with which was also stuffed into the child's bikini with a gun as well. After the arrest, the money was suspiciously nowhere to be found. As the suspects were brought to Manila to be jailed, the computers and laptop and forensic evidence were taken under the official care of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for reasons that no one really knows.

The legal department of the Preda Foundation has been pursuing its efforts in convincing the NBI and Department of Justice to submit the forensic evidences. Still, nothing happened. After such time, the said evidences mysteriously vanished. This has resulted to the dismissal of the charges of the trafficking against the two suspects. After their immediate release from their NBI detention cells in manila, the two took a plane back to California.

Unfortunate cases like this are what the Preda Foundation stands for. A fight like this is one of the essential aspects of the organizations identity. Preda foundation will never stop to fight for kids who need their help. A bright and shining moment is what the Preda foundation is hoping and praying for in cases like these.

Any CoverUp of Child Abuse is A Crime

Trafficking is still very much evident in our world today; especially with both women and children. Covering up of such indecent crimes should never be tolerated as it is an act against humanity. However, in some European countries it is shocking to find out that it occurs on a regular basis. In Asia, thousands of women and children result to prostitution because of poverty. International pedophiles use this situation to take advantage of the abuse and violated by offering them malicious jobs while some are being trafficked. In the Philippines however, President Benigno Aquino has vowed to fight the increasing number of child abuse and human tracking in the country. Because of the work of PREDA Foundation, saving sexually exploited and abused children has now become a priority. PREDA has recently teamed up with an Irish Aid project to help stop the "secret settlement system" wherein several local officials accepts money coming from the payment that the parents of the victim receive from the pedophile. These certain actions are also considered as "cover-up crimes" since by merely keeping quite, one permits the suspect to continuously commit such crimes. Morever, religion has always been the backbone of my advocacy. I strongly believe that through the Christian faith, I am able to let others see the light. Everybody should not be afraid to speak up since silence will never get you anywhere. Despite all the challenges, I was still able to rise above and establish an organization that would fulfill Jesus' mission by protecting child's rights and saving the abuse and the violated. PREDA works to give justice to the children who are enslaved in brothels and the young ones suffering behind bars for crimes that they did not commit. We fight not only to protect the welfare of the children, but to give justice where it is needed. In this case, to the numerous sexual offenders, pedophiles and abusive parents who do not value the gift of life itself. PREDA's hotlines are open where anyone can report cases regarding the rights of children. Rescue Teams will be provided immediately after the call has been made. PREDA saves, protects and safeguards the rights of the sexually abused and violated.

Two Swedes Jailed For Life Over Philippine Cybersex Den

Finally, after three years of waiting, Bo Stefan Sederholm, 31, and Emil Andreas Solemo, 35; the two Swedish nationals who ran a cybersex operation in the Philippines, were proven guilty of human trafficking charges and were sentence to life imprisonment. The ruling was announced earlier by a court in Southern Philippines.

The court took into consideration the severity of the crimes committed for making such an extreme decision. Three Filipinos were also charged with 20 years of jail time for helping these sex offenders set up these cybersex dens. It was found that these Swedish nationals had forced young women to perform sexual acts in front of welcomes to please their certain clients. Judge Jeoffree Acebido has raised that issue of defending the rights of the Filipino women by stating that, "disrespect for Filipino women and violations of our laws deserve the strongest condemnations from this court," the judge continued by saying, "it will not shirk from its duty to impose the most severe of penalties against anybody, be he a foreign national or a citizen of this country, who tramples upon the dignity of a woman by taking advantage of her vulnerability." It was April of 2009 when the two Swedish national were arrested during a raid in Kauswagan, Mindanao. The police found 17 naked Filipinas; some under age, performing cybersex in front of webcams. These women were supposedly paid 15,000 pesos a month for their services. The Swedish embassy has indeed received the information and has no violent reaction to the ruling.