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Father Shay Cullen is an Irish Columban missionary who has worked in the Philippines since 1969. In 1974, he founded the Preda Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to protecting the rights of women and children and campaigning for freedom from sex slavery and human trafficking.

Only a just judge can save the innocent

Only a just judge can save the innocent

Hundreds of drug dealers and users surrender to police in Manila's Quezon City on June 24 after incoming president Rodrigo Duterte announced that he will be tough in his war against drugs. (ucanews.com photo by Robert Gines)

Published: July 05, 2016 06:32 AM GMT
Philippines is descending into a place where corrupt police and officials have no respect for the justice system

The Philippines is moving away from being a place of compassion and justice to one where the innocents are targets of assassination and wrongful imprisonment on false charges.

In recent weeks, dozens of bodies have been found with signs declaring them criminals deserving of death. But there was no trial. The killers have clear contempt for the process of justice. 

Street children are sometimes set up by drug pushers as delivery boys and are arrested and declared criminals. They can be shot, too. Journalists have also been declared by some officials to be deserving of assassinations. Travelers, both Filipinos and foreigners, have been set up with bullets and cannabis planted in their bags at Philippine airports.

Some corrupt police and government officials have no respect for the system of justice and treat it with contempt. When they frame someone with a false charge, only a judge with integrity can rescue someone from jail.

One foreign visitor in the city of Olongapo — we can call him Frank — was set up by a police captain who stole the visitor's expensive camera. When Frank demanded it back and asked for justice, he was charged by the police with child abuse and jailed without bail. 

Frank is not paying anything to have the charges dropped. He has hope in the system of justice and is fighting for his freedom. He suffers greatly and has a rare form of diabetes and needs a special insulin shot only available in Europe. He will surely die if he does not get it.

During a jail visit, he told me he will be found innocent since there is fairness and truth in the Philippines and it is on his side. The police captain and the stolen camera mysteriously disappeared.

False charges are commonplace in the Philippines. I know the hardship and the pain of people who experienced it. I have been falsely and wrongfully charged in court dozens of times. The sex mafia in Olongapo City claimed they were libeled by my writings.

I was writing the truth in the interest of the public, upholding the rights and dignity of women and children. My articles exposed child abuse and the evil of human trafficking and child sexual abuse. The sex mafia has no respect for the truth or the rule of law. 

After years of non-stop legal battles to prove my innocence, justice prevailed and good judges saw through the tricks of the corrupt. The sex mafia backed by corrupt officials tried to silence me from speaking the truth.

Matheo, an 11-year-old street boy, was abandoned in the streets and had nowhere to sleep when he was accused of stealing bread. The police took the boy to a government-run child detention center where he was beaten and sexually assaulted.

When he was rescued by social workers, Matheo was a broken and traumatized child. It took months of support, care and encouragement for him to gain trust. The corrupt police destroyed Matheo's young life. 

We hope and work so he can recover and survive such cruelty and we can save some of the thousands of other children in harsh cruel detention, which has become the norm in most towns and cities.

For those hurt and wronged by others, the desire for justice is a burning need. The modern world seems to be returning to the primitive age of violence and injustice where peace is dead and human rights are no longer the top priority for many governments. 

We thought that humanity had become civilized and left behind its barbaric way and evolved to a higher form of human life: spiritual, educated, enlightened, compassionate, merciful and caring.

Some indeed have reached this higher form of life, and have love and justice in their hearts. But we continue to have to take a stand and work for these transforming principles and values.

 Irish Father Shay Cullen SSC established the Preda Foundation in Olongapo City in 1974 to promote human rights and the rights of children, especially victims of sex abuse. 

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