Overview of Reported Cases of Philippine Clergy Sexual Abuse of Children and Young People

• Davao City, 1991. : Fr. Rex Mansmann, an American priest in his mid-fifties who heads the Sta. Cruz Mission in Lake Sebu, was accused of raping a 13-year old T’boli42 girl.⁴³ The wife of the town’s mayor defended the priest saying that the accusations were unfounded.
• Tacloban City, 1993. : Deportation proceedings were filed against an American Catholic missionary worker with the Perpetual Mother Congregation based in Naval, Biliran. Brother Steve Michael Greinte, 38, who headed this congregation, faced a criminal case for acts of lasciviousness against a 19-year old Filipino boy. Under covert surveillance by authorities, several photos were taken of Greinte having oral sex with other teenage members of the Congregation on the beach of Naval.⁴⁴
• May 2002: A woman sought child support from Fr. Nicanor Sta. Maria, who once served as principal of the Don Bosco High School in Makati City. She said she had a relationship lasting close to five years with Sta. Maria while she was working as his secretary.⁴⁵
• June 2002: A soldier accused Fr. Eleuterio Carton, parish priest of Tigbauan, Iloilo, of sexually harassing him in 1996 when he was only 17. The soldier executed an affidavit addressed to Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo. His mother also issued a separate affidavit in support of her son’s accusations against the priest. Carton denied the allegations, saying he did not even know the soldier. On 4 October, Carton hit back at his accusers by suing them for libel and perjury.⁴⁶
• July 2002: Florida officials issued a warrant for the arrest of Fr. Polienato Bernabe, 61, a native of Pangasinan, who had been charged with sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl more than two decades ago in Gulfport, Florida. Under Florida laws, if convicted, Bernabe could face life in prison. Bernabe, a member of the Archdiocese of Lingayen- Dagupan, was a visiting priest who served at the Holy Name Catholic church in Gulfport and the Holy Family Catholic church in St. Petersburg in the 1970s and 1980s. The victim, Melissa M. Price, said Bernabe began abusing her in late 1978 when she was 8. Price, who allowed newspapers to use her name, told investigators that the abuse, which escalated into sexual intercourse, took place hundreds of times at her mother’s home in Gulfport. According to the St. Petersburg Times, Bernabe took her on a three-week vacation to the Philippines when she was 12. On her 16th birthday, she said, he gave her a used car but later replaced it with a brand new Volkswagen Cabriolet.⁴⁷
• In Cebu City, three former altar boys of the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño and another youngster wrote Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, accusing former basilica rector Fr. Apolinario Mejorada of sexually abusing them between 1995 and 1998.⁴⁸

About a week later, Mejorada’s superiors admitted he was involved in some “transgression” and paid Php 120,000 pesos in settlement. Shortly thereafter Fr. Mercurio Montenegro was accused by a 29-year-old man and more than 30 other altar boys of abusing them from 1987 to 1997. Montenegro, the former parish priest of the town of Cordova on Mactan Island, denied the accusation.⁴⁹

• The alleged sexual abuse of Rita Milla by seven priests in 1983 was in the news when she asked Roger Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles to help her find the priest who got her pregnant. The would-be nun earlier said the late Fr. Santiago Tamayo Jr. and six other priests sexually abused her when she was 16 years old. She said the diocese tried to cover up the abuse by arranging for her trip to the Philippines to keep her pregnancy a secret. She delivered the baby at the Ilocos Norte Provincial Hospital. She later returned to the United States.⁵⁰
• A sexual harassment case was filed by three students and an instructor of the Cagayan State University against Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, CSU vice president for academic affairs. Aquino had filed complaints of irregularities, graft and mismanagement against some university officials being investigated by the House committee on good government. On 4 February 2000, the Ombudsman dismissed the sexual harassment charges against Aquino.⁵¹
• In Northern Samar, Fr. Eugenio Talavera Jr., parish priest of Allen, was relieved of his pastoral duties in the Diocese of Catarman in the wake of charges of rape and illegal detention filed against him by his niece on 14 January 1999. Nemia, the daughter of the priest’s first cousin, said she was sexually abused between December 1996 and early 1997.⁵²
• A priest who handles psychotherapy sessions for “erring” priests and bishops admitted in a confidential interview⁵³ that he witnessed a fellow diocesan priest in a “sexual act” with an adolescent boy. This priest-abuser was reported and the bishop made him undergo therapy that went on for three years—a fact known only to a select few. Others were simply told that he was taking “further studies.” The priest who gave this interview was certain that some therapy was also provided for the victim but was more confident about the healing that his fellow priest underwent. In fact, the priest interviewed is concerned about how the priest-offender now faces serious challenges because talk seemed to have erupted in the diocese among fellow priests that he abused some minors. It came out in the interview that the bishop is seriously considering a transfer of diocese for the priest offender. Several questions posed were left unanswered: How does anyone know that an erring priest such as one’s colleague has really fully recovered?Why does the thinking that it may have been just an isolated case pervade? How can one be sure that the abuse will not happen again? How does one ensure the victim’s healing and complete recovery? What are the guidelines by which a transfer, if any, will occur? Shouldn’t the receiving diocese be told about the priest-offender’s history as a preventive measure? Why maintain “silence”?
• Ms. Ma. Elena Caraballo, Deputy Executive Director of the CWC, mentioned that her office recently received a facsimile inquiry from a US lawyer regarding a Fr. Arwin Diesta from the Archdiocese of Bicol.⁵⁴ A 35-year old man, who is a client of the US lawyer, alleged that Diesta abused him in the US when he was still a boy. Interestingly, the communication merely requested for information on whether Diesta was still based in a seminary. Caraballo’s contact from the DSWD Region V Director informed her that Diesta was now with a parish. Caraballo further requested the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to confirm Diesta’s whereabouts. To date, she has not heard from either the DOJ or the NBI. When asked if the CWC would include cases of clergy sexual abuse of minors in the Philippine Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Caraballo replied that this is unlikely since the report is already long and that these cases are “isolated” at best.