The Inconvenient Contradictions

By: Fr. Shay Cullen (preda@info.com.ph)

The outpouring of public concern and outrage over the acquittal and overturning of a rape conviction and a life sentence by the Philippine Court of Appeals against US Navy Marine Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, was less than expected. The public had been conditioned by the affidavit of desistance of the victim made last 8 March 2009.

Per usual, Shay Cullen want public outcry. Why? Isn't an acquittal a good thing, if the man is indeed innocent? Why the outrage by Shay Cullen? Is it because he needs to point to an American as a rapist? And by the way, being the way I am, I have to ask this question: Was there a PREVIOUS 8 March 2009 of which I am not aware? "Last March" would have been acceptable as there is a month called March every year, but the moment that a defined date is included precludes any further descriptive words such as "last" or "next". Maybe Shay Cullen did not get any education in English grammar.

Soon after that the young woman, Nicole (not her real name), departed to the United States with a special immigrant visa, if not a green card and a generous financial gratuity by way of compensation. A deal had been done. The complainant was neutralized and the court could proceed with the expected acquittal.

This piece of information does seem to make it suspect that perhaps there is a coverup. I'm on Shay Cullen's side for this statement.

The Court of Appeals division 11 is composed of three female judges. They ruled that they had ignored the affidavit of Nicole, but that she was not an innocent provincial girl but a woman of “indecorous behavior”. More or less saying that the victim had asked for it and was to blame. The ruling said in effect that the lower court had been wrong in convicting Smith of rape because the evidence showed that it was a “spontaneous unplanned romantic episode”. Indeed!

It ruled that semi-intoxicated Nicole, even though she was carried on the back of the marine to a van where the “spontaneous romantic episode” happened, gave her consent. Many have taken issue with this decision. But it was the only “political” decision possible.

The two above paragraphs tend to exhonorate the accused, so again I'm back to asking the question as to why Shay Cullen is so outraged? If the woman was bought off, that is one thing, but if she willingly took part in the episode, then the charge would have to be dismissed. Perhaps the woman fled to the United States to escape a conviction for false accusations?

For many Americans and Filipino officials and business leaders, it is unimaginable for a US marine to be imprisoned for life in a filthy, disease-ridden Philippine jail with criminals, rapists, rats and cockroaches. It would lead to unending protest rallies in the United States, and an end to all US investment and aid to the Philippines.

Why would anyone be upset if a criminal is imprisoned with other criminals? That makes little sense. By the way, are rats and cockroaches also imprisoned? If not, why does Shay Cullen mention them so freely in the same sentence as if they are part of the prison population and not simply animals and insects that would come indoors whether mankind liked it or not? If Shay Cullen's issue is with health and cleanliness standards, why doesn't he come right out and make it an issue, rather than hide it in his text as some dark metaphore that would seem to appear to indict the authorities of negligence?

That was the reason the US government insisted on keeping Smith in the US Embassy and not in a Filipino jail. They were right, those jails are unfit for human habitation. They are still the abode of Filipino children and we wish many Filipinos would consider it unimaginable that children would be incarcerated with adult criminals and rats and rally to have them released.

But what a campaign it was for the activist groups during the past three years that saw rallies, marches and denunciations of US military rapists and women abusers. There were even calls by some opposition politicians for the Philippines to rescind the Visiting Forces Agreement(VFA) that allows US ships and planes to use the Philippines ports and airports and conduct military exercises. It was the widespread sexual exploitation of women and children by US servicemen and sex tourists in the honky-tonk bars of Olongapo and Angeles City and elsewhere that led to the campaign to close the bases and convert them to economic zones.

Actually, that was his campaign. See next paragraph.

That was a ten year campaign that succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. It started the day in 1983, when I discovered 12 children, the youngest was 9 years-old, infected with venereal diseases and hidden away from the public and media in the Olongapo city general hospital by the mayor and US admiral. Not even the Red Cross came to save them. Exposing that nearly cost me my life.

Here is Shay Cullen's first lie as evidenced by his book "Passion and Power", pages 160 - 161, where he wrote that between June 5 and June 16, 1982, Sr Maria was unable to treat so many children at the Pope John XXIII Clinic, not Preda Foundation. She did not go to Shay Cullen or Preda, according to his book, until July 11, 1982. Not only was Shay Cullen off as to when it started, he did not even refer to his own records! More obvious is the fact that he not only blamed the Mayor (now Senator Dick Gordon), but also the U.S. admiral, who's authority ended at the gates other than to return any wayward sailor or marine back to base if duty or punishment was required. And also astoundingly, he claims that his life was threatened. By whom, and what were those circumstances? His book does not make that connection, but makes a case several years later, to which I for one hold skeptisism.

The bases are closed since 1992 and hundreds of manufacturing enterprises, hotels, and family tourist resorts employ as many as 80,000 Filipinos with dignified work. While the bases went away, the sex industry did not completely die. It reemerged in 1996 run by the international sex mafia with thousands of European and Australian sex tourists and retired US servicemen enjoying the sexual exploitation of young women and children they once enjoyed.

Note an inconguity here: The bases were closed since 1992, yet two paragraphs prior he is saying that the clamoring for the denunciation of US military rapists and women abusers was held for the past three years. Are the bases closed or not? Take note that Shay Cullen has been very consistent in stating that there was NO INDUSTRY in Olongapo City except for SEX HOTELS, BARS and BROTHELS. Let's see, there were several department stores, if I remember right, the first time I came to Olongapo in 1987. Were those bars, sex hotels, or brothels? How about the wood carvers I saw in the market? Pimps, maybe? You see, those are only two examples, and I could go on and on about other businesses that I saw in 1987. In short, I do not believe at all what Shay Cullen writes.

Today, sex slavery is growing and thousands of women and children are trafficked into the sex clubs that proliferate across the land from the cities to the seaside resorts. Child rape, prostitution of children, forced abortions and every kind of sexual exploitation is rampant. There are no campaigns, rallies nor marches for them. Why not? Thousands of foreigners are doing this every day and night in sex bars, clubs and hotels across the land and it is just as evil and wrong and outrageous as what the marchers and protesters said Daniel Smith did to Nicole and there is not a placard of protest to be seen.

This is Shay Cullen's answer to a criminal problem - campaigns, rallies, marches? What about simply cutting the source, filing complaints and getting convictions? Shay Cullen's rants do not DISCOURAGE sex tourism, but PROMOTES it, claiming to the whole world that sex tourists are safe from prosecution. Must be - he obviously is not filing cases against anyone except children - mine and my former housemaid. Yes, the complaint was signed by Shay Cullen and several of his staff. Did they pursue the case? No. One more mark for their victory over 'pedophiles'.