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Threats and Harassment - The Price Of Truth
First Published: Reflections - The Philippine Daily Inquirer Publication Date: 11th December 1991 Author's Name: Father Shay Cullen SSC This is a story about the way politicians abuse their power to deny people their rights and advance their own selfish interests. It is about politicians who become intoxicated with power and abuse it and then harass others who raise their voice or pen in protest. Danny Padella, our Inquirer journalist and his family have been threatened because of his exposures of illegal logging. The Inquirer editors have been threatene d for their fearless views and I myself have had death threats and harassment from Olongapo for reporting the truth about the child and women abuse here. Despite all this the Inquirer will not be intimidated by threats or bribed into silence. Here is the latest harassment of The Preda center where I work. The background is that the local politicians want to keep a clean image of themselves to the public. They detest exposes on abused women and children. Preda also files cases against child rapists. Presently we have two cases against police-aides for raping a 12 year old and another for raping a 10 year old. The latter is allegedly a hit-man close to a powerful local politician. ABOUT TWO YEARS ago the monsoon rains were eroding the embankments around the Preda Childhood For Children center in Olongapo City. In this city such a home is necessary. Children as young as six years old were found by US Navy investigators to have been offered by pimps to sailors for sex in our "clean and orderly" city. I was reporting these happenings in this column and received threats. To stop the soil erosion at the child center we put up a retaining wall. Mayor Gordon's officials filed a criminal charge against me for illegal construction of a fence. So we decided not to argue and applied for a fencing permit. This was necessary anyway since drunkards were coming around the house where the children slept and tried to break in .One even indecently exposed himself naked in front of the children. Gordon rejected the application citing two reasons 1. The city council had passed a resolution claiming the Preda land for itself. 2. It was illegal for Preda to put up a structure on the land. Both were later discredited and proven wrong by the highest authorities. Gordon's officials pressed the criminal case and had an arrest warrant issued against me. I posted P1000 bail. The case is still pending. On December 6 1989 PREDA appealed to the Secretary of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and on March 2 1990 he ordered engineer Nicolas De Leon to issue the permit in 15 days. De Leon failed to do so. Mayor Gordon allegedly ordered the city legal office to appeal against the order to Malacanang. The office of the President, last 26 August 1991 through Executive Secretary Franklin Drilon, on the authority of President Aquino, signed a 5 page resolution that dismissed that motion of Gordon. Thereby effectively ordering the instruction of The Secretary of the DPWH to be obeyed at once. But the permit has not been issued as of this writing. Apparently the executive order has been disobeyed and the rule of law defied. Making it appear that the The office of the President counts for nothing. Can the Office of the President enforce the ruling? The rule of just laws must be up-held, provided they are applied in such a way that no human rights are violated or taken away. Readers ask why is the mayor hindering us rather than helping? The calamity of Pinatubo, the earthquakes and the floods, threats and intimidation are enough to endure but now for Olongapo officials to take advantage of this disaster to deny us our rights is hard-hearted and cruel. So I have a criminal charge, an arrest warrant and I am out on bail or permit denied. But that is not all. As the almost one million readers of the Inquirer probably know the Preda children's home and drug rehabilitation center was seriously damaged by the Pinatubo eruption and the earthquakes and has to be repaired and rebuilt. As the news stories reported Mayor Gordon refused to issue a building permit to the child center. No new reasons for this denial were cited. They repeated the old reasons I mentioned above. Mayor Gordon, who said he wants to be President of the Philippines (but said he will settle for vice-president for now,) can't be so heartless and cruel and vindictive . There must be a mistake. But remember change is possible and the good in people can still emerge from petty and vindictive minds.
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