Sex abuse victims defer to Church, afraid to report

MANILA, Philippines—A party-list lawmaker on Friday said the usual reaction of victims of sexual abuse by members of the Philippine clergy was to keep silent, either in deference to the Church or for fear of scandal.

In at least one case, the clergy sought to protect its own by simply moving the priest to another parish, Gabriela Representative Luz Ilagan told the Inquirer.

“In our culture, where there is a long history of control by the Catholic Church, there is deference to them. And then the victims feel shame. Their emotions get all mixed up, so they are afraid to report what happened,” Ilagan said. “Who will believe you? You are complaining against someone who has moral ascendancy.”

Victims also keep the abuse to themselves because they don’t want the stigma associated with it and because they feel they would be dishonored if they revealed what happened, she said.

Ilagan said that when it’s the word of a young girl against the word of a priest, the community would tend to believe the man of the cloth.

“They will even say, maybe the girl did something to provoke him. When a priest is involved, the blame is on the woman,” she said.

She also cited the experiences of several women who had married former priests.  The men left the priesthood long before they met their future wives but “even after they got married, they are still looked upon as the people who caused the men to leave the Church,” she said.

Ilagan said not all victims kept silent, citing last year’s case of a young girl who told of what she went through in the hands of a priest in Butuan City. Gabriela helped her file a case, which is still pending.

The Church, hearing of the allegations against the priest, transferred him to another parish. “They tend to protect their own,” Ilagan said.