SunStar: Priest in sexual harassment case breaks silence

A priest facing charges of lascivious conduct while hearing the confessions of high school students at a seminar last year has broken his silence and is seeking a hearing for the “truth." Sun-Star Cebu (www.sunstar.com.ph) reported Friday that Fr. Benedicto Ejares sought a clarificatory hearing to “ferret out the truth" about last year’s incident. Ejares, through lawyer Antonio Bacalso II, submitted his counter-affidavit dated June 14 Thursday to the Cebu City prosecutor. He said the students may have “misinterpreted" his actions as he is just a “jolly kind of person" and was merely making the students feel at ease. The priest said his actions during the confession were meant to comfort the students and put them at ease while giving their confessions. But a City Hall consultant who oversaw the filing of the complaint against Ejares questioned the priest’s disappearance for several months if indeed he felt that he did nothing wrong. “Whatever justifications he is raising is negated by the fact that he hid after the allegations against him were first raised, to the extent that the Archdiocese of Cebu said they didn’t know where he was," said lawyer Alvin Butch Cañares, the Cebu City Hall consultant who oversaw the filing of the complaint for the City Council’s social welfare committee. Ejares did not go to the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor to make his oath personally, which is the usual practice in preliminary investigations. The community tax certificate he used in the affidavit was dated December 20, 2006 and was issued in Cebu City. He attached the affidavits of three Abellana National High School students who also took part in the seminar and the confession but said nothing wrong happened. Initial details indicated Ejares heard the confessions of students on Nov. 14 last year as part of a Life in the Spirit Seminar hosted by the Oasis of Love for students of the Abellana National High School. The students raised their complaints against the priest a few days later and formalized their complaint before the Department of Social Welfare and Development. In turn, the DSWD turned over the case to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) early January. “Fr. Ben was nowhere to be found," Cañares said. The NBI filed a case with the Cebu City prosecutor last March 11, after Ejares never answered the subpoena it sent Feb. 24. “That doesn’t seem like the actions of a person protesting that he is innocent," Cañares said. In his counter-affidavit, Ejares said the allegations have been “serious and destructive" to him, his family and the Catholic Church. He said these accusations were a “blatant exaggeration" and “outright false and malicious." “To set the records straight, I never tried to sexually abuse the seven complainants as they claim to be; what happened was a graphic case of misinterpretation and misunderstanding because all my actions during the questioned confession as geared towards making them feel at ease and encouraging them to tell their sins openly," he said. He said there were “patent fear and hesitation" among the students, so he “strove hard to take away those barriers." “People say that I am a jolly kind of person so I wanted to put this trait to good use by making them (penitents) understand and feel that the confession could be casual, like carrying on an ordinary conversation with a friend," he said. “I have experimented on this in the past and I have found out that this is effective compared to the usual type of confessions wherein penitents are very stiff and nervous," he added. Ejares said he did not lasciviously touch anyone, explaining that he was merely “comforting" the complaining students. “I just wanted to console them for they were sorry for their sins," he said. The comforting, he admitted, sometimes took the form of touching the students in the arm, shoulders and back. “I don’t know whether or not in the process I accidentally touched their bras for I was deeply concentrated on giving them advice; but this time I have to state that there never was malice involved," he said. - GMANews.TV