A wretched father-daughter tale

I will never understand why a father would rape his own daughter.

Ana (not her real name) came to me at Isumbong Mo kay Tulfo office on Monday to complain that she was being left out in her share of the inheritance from her late father.

I knew Ana’s father who died of a stroke two months ago.

He struck me as a very decent family man.

What left me dumbfounded was when 31-year-old Ana told me she has two children, 16 and 10, both girls, by her father.

In other words, her daughters are also her sisters. The girls are also her father’s grandchildren.

She told me she was raped by her father when she was 14 and a second-year high school student.

When she got pregnant, Ana said, her father hid her in Bicol, far from the province where she and her mom lived. She said her late mother was the first wife.

The father was living in with another woman when he died.

Ana’s first child was born in Quezon City, where her father took her from Bicol.

She took care of the baby for several months and then gave her away.

The second child was born inside a house for unwed mothers run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Ana is keeping her second child. Her third child, as well as the one in her womb, is with her boyfriend, a sidewalk vendor.

I can’t understand why her father, who was very rich, would leave her very poor when he had two children with her!

Ana said her father, an engineer and inventor, was able to keep the dark secret.

She said he practically knelt before her to withdraw the criminal cases filed against him in court with the help of the DSWD.

How I wish Ana was lying to me. But why would a daughter accuse her own father of rape?

*  *  *

The talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have been deadlocked.

The MILF said it is “frustrated” with the slow progress of the peace negotiations.

The government should not easily give in to their demands for doing so could be mistaken for weakness.

The peace process takes time, and demands and counter-offers are part of bargaining.

The government should not be hurried into acquiescing with the MILF’s demands for self-rule since the Moros already have been given a measure of autonomy.

Ask any non-Muslim in Mindanao who will tell you that some Moros would want the whole arm rather than just a hand.

I am not making that up; I am from Mindanao myself.

*  *  *

Why is it taking a long time for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate Masbate Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Richard C. Lee?

Lee has been accused of  running away with a P2-million settlement from his former employer, Fortune Medicare Inc. (FortuneCare), while he was about to sign the quit-claim in front of a labor arbiter.

A robbery case was filed in the DOJ by FortuneCare months ago, but it has yet to be resolved.

Is the DOJ trying to protect one of its own?

*  *  *

Lee has filed cases against FortuneCare officers in Masbate and even those remotely connected with the firm to get back at the company. He is using the power of government to harass his enemies.