Reporting abuse should be as common as making a call

The sex industry contributes to the proliferation of all forms of pornography, including on Internet as well as trafficking in human persons. The Philippines now ranks in the top 10 of the major worldwide producers of online material [cf: The ASEAN Post]. Photo: courtesy of Preda

Many readers of this article are good people with a heart for child victims and want to help them to report abuse and ask how they can help. Knowing the signs is important. It is everybody’s task to be sensitive and alert, suspicious and concerned when a child is morose, depressed, sad, silent and angry, and makes sexually suggestive gestures like lifting her skirt or lowering her shorts. The child is trying to send a message. If the child has pain or discharge from her private parts, an immediate medical check-up is essential.

Society has to wake up and accept the horrific truth that much of human nature is corrupt. One in every four children is a victim of sexual abuse. Every five minutes, one is abused and most incidents go unreported and acted upon. Children will tell a close friend first. So there are many in need of help.

You don’t need to be a psychologist to help a child-victim. You only need to be a friend, to listen with understanding and just be a truly good human. Just show friendship and encourage the child to be open and trusting and tell if anything bad happened to them. If yes, then give support and understanding, and report it to the authorities for investigation. Assist the child to get therapy, protection and legal help. The child will be fearful of disclosing abuse. Child abuse is almost as frequent as sending a text. Reporting child abuse should be as frequent as making a phone call.

All good people wish to push back against these crimes and do more to help rescue the children from abusers and traffickers and bring the suspects to trial and convict them. That is happening but not frequently enough. 

Angelica [not her real name] is a 13-year-old from a town in Zambales. She was sexually assaulted one night when she was alone in a small shack in the Philippine rural countryside. 

Two grown men burst into the remote shack, grabbed and abducted her. They dragged her out and brought her to a grassy field and there brutally and without shame or mercy raped her. They then covered her with a coat and were moving her to another place to perhaps kill her to silence her forever. 

When they passed near the village, by pure chance, the wife of one of the abusers was out looking for him and saw them with the child. She challenged the men and an argument broke out and Angelica, traumatised as she was, broke away and ran for her life. She knew they were likely to murder her to cover up their horrific crime.

Angelica ran back to her home in a little shack and her elder brother was there. She bravely reported all that happened. Immediately, they went to the police and described the suspects who were neighbours and apparently known to Angelica’s brother. The police responded immediately and they arrested the two suspects and jailed them according to the rule on inquest.

Angelica was taken into the care of the municipal social worker and was clearly traumatised. She and her brother received threats and she was referred to the Preda Home for abused children. She is now safe and able to share her story freely and is receiving the support, affirmation and is healing in a caring family environment. 

Melba is a 14-year-old girl who was trafficked by two sisters who preyed on young girls, luring and entrapping them into a life of sexual commercial exploitation. They searched on Facebook for sex tourists residing in the Philippines, offered them young teenagers for sex and arrange for them to meet and they earned big money for themselves. Their victims got a pittance.

Melba was one of them. Like many other trafficked teenage girls, she was from a broken home, vulnerable, had little education and was dependent on the traffickers for survival. She was offered online to a wealthy American national. The traffickers took the money and left him the 14-year-old Melba to sexually abuse. They brought him other victims to abuse in sex hotels in Olongapo City and in Subic town that are under the eyes of the authorities. He returned to Angeles City where he had his residence in Clarkview. 

Meanwhile, Melba and his victims were rescued from other sex tourists and the traffickers arrested. The children were referred to the Preda Home to be safe and recover. They were empowered and testified against the three human traffickers that were detained. 

Melba told her Preda counsellor and social worker about the foreign person who abused her and many other children also. Preda assisted them in filing charges against him and it was elevated to the court by the Olongapo City Prosecutor. 

Judge Gemma Theresa B. Hilario-Logronio, of the Olongapo City Family Court Branch 12, then issued an arrest warrant against the suspect, 61-year old US citizen, Nicholas Gabriel Pyant. Preda immediately began a search for his whereabouts and finally got his address in Angeles City and passed it to the authorities.

On July 27, Pyant was arrested in Angeles City by police officers under the command of Police Colonel Rommel S. Batangan on charges of multiple acts of abuse and trafficking of minors. 

Several of Pyant’s child victims are in the care and custody of the Preda Foundation, happily recovered and preparing for a new life and ready and willing to testify against their alleged suspected serial abuser and bring him to justice. They previously testified in a case against three female traffickers who sold them like animals to sex tourists and, allegedly, to Pyant.

There is satisfaction that justice was served and will be done for the many victims who can live a happier life, free from exploitation and abuse. 

We must do all we can to help. So report abuse in strict confidence to Preda Foundation at +63 917 532 4453 or predainfo@gmail.com.

Father Shay Cullen
www.preda.org