BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
(Continued from Feb. 11-12, 2023)
THE CASE of 14-year old Angie (not her real name) is shocking and instructive and can serve as a warning to would-be child sex offenders. The grandfather started sexually abusing Angie when her grandmother was out of the house. He threatened the child and repeated the sexual act many times. Angie was so frightened and scared she dared not report the rape to anyone. Angie’s father was dead and her mother was an overseas domestic worker.
On February 6, 2020 at 10PM, her grandfather sexually abused her yet again. This time, Angie was again very angry and so much so she found the courage to tell her mother by Messenger what her grandfather was doing to her. Her mother called the principal and a teacher at her school and told them to help Angie. They took Angie to the municipal social worker and the police station. They interviewed the child and referred her to the Preda Foundation home for abused children in Subic, Zambales since there was no healing and therapy center in Mariveles.
There, she found acceptance, protection and safety from the anger and retaliation of her grandfather, now deprived of his sex slave. In Preda, Angie felt accepted and understood and she had Emotional Release Therapy. In a padded therapy room, she shouted, screamed and cried, releasing all the pent up pain, hurt and anger at her grandfather for the pain he had inflicted on her for his own depraved pleasure. She was soon recovering and became strong and empowered and filed her case with the prosecutor against her grandfather. Angie was soon learning at a new school and enjoying the freedom from fear and abuse. Judge Teresa Pagtalunan-Mauleon believed the clear testimony of Angie and sentenced Lorenzo Figuracion to life in prison. The huge fines levied on him will never be paid to Angie but it is enough that she found victory and justice at last.
Another case resolved this past week after three and half years is that against a human trafficker, Allyana Ysabel Fernandez known as “Quenn.” She recruited and lured 11 minors, the youngest only 15 years of age, to the Golden Victory Hotel in Mabiga, Mabalacat, Pampanga on 4 March 2019 to sell them for sex to customers. The teenagers were shocked when several male “sex customers” came into the room and gave the trafficker a wad of money. As soon as she accepted it, she was immediately arrested and handcuffed on the spot. Some of the teenagers burst into tears when they realized that the “customers” were in fact under-cover police.
The undercover agents of the Philippine National Police Women and Children’s Protection Center (WCPC) of the Luzon Field Unit based in Camp Crame had just concluded a brilliantly successful entrapment operation. Eleven of the victims were sent to the Preda home for trafficked children since there is no therapeutic healing center in Pampanga with Emotional Release Therapy (ERT) and empowerment training for victims of trafficking. After months of therapy and empowerment, most of them recovered and agreed to testify in court. Fernandez has been found guilty of human trafficking by Judge April Joy B. Magsayo-Aguila and sentenced to life in prison, according to the court decision issued on Nov. 17, 2022, another victory for Preda children.
The victim/survivors after their life in the Preda home for trafficked victims have all been reintegrated in their families and are living a more normal, happier life of dignity. There are 63 children at the Preda home at present healing and recovering from rape and online abuse. (preda.org)/PN
