Church money used to hush up 4 former Cebu altar boys?

CEBU CITY — After the initial shock when four former altar boys decided to come out in the open to accuse an Augustinian priest of sexual abuse after initially getting paid to shut up, the next question that popped up in the public mind was whether church money was used in the attempt to silence the boys.

The boys, now in their twenties, said in a written complaint to Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal that three of them were allegedly paid P120,000 each by Fr. Apolinario "Jing" Mejorada to buy their silence.

The boys told Vidal that while in their teens and serving as altar boys at the Basilica del Santo Niño, Mejorada allegedly subjected them to sexual molestation over a period of time in the late-1990s.

Mejorada once served as rector of the Basilica.

The boys said they accepted the money on condition that Mejorada would apologize and that the Augustinian order would expel and send him away.

They decided to resurrect the case when they allegedly saw Mejorada still at the Basilica’s pilgrim center last May.

The boys alleged that the money, totaling P360,000, was handed to them by Mejorada’s priest-brother, Fr. Mario Mejorada, in the presence of their lawyer, Jorge Esparagoza.

One of the boys, now 22 and who acts as the group’s spokesman, said he was of the impression that part of the money was from Mejorada himself but that part of it could also have come from the priest’s congregation.

He said he got this impression when, after the settlement, he and the other victims tried to join the Cofradia del Santo Niño but were rejected by Fr. Ambrosio Galindez, now the prior of the Augustinian community at the Basilica.

In rejecting their application, Galindez implied that they were no longer welcome because of the troubles they had caused and that those troubles allegedly "cost the congregation a lot of money."

After the story on the alleged sexual abuses came out, Galindez no longer made himself available for media interviews.

Settlement

But in an earlier interview, Galindez admitted that money had changed hands and that the money was intended to hush up the boys.

He, however, said the money came from Mejorada and was given through his brother, Fr. Mario Mejorada.

The Mejoradas are from Loon, Bohol. The town’s vice mayor, Raul Barbarona, told radio station dyLA in an interview that the family is well-respected for their civic-mindedness.

The Mejoradas are also believed to be landed in Bohol.

What remains unclear is whether they had the huge sum of money used to silence the boys or whether they were willing to part with such an amount.

Ironically, for all that allegedly went on between Mejorada and the boys, as well as the other members of the Knights of Santo Niño, the Basilica-based organization of altar boys, it was an entirely different matter that sparked the unrest leading to the exposé against Mejorada.

It appears that one altar boy was allegedly caught sneaking in a few bottles of beer but that Mejorada decided to expel all the boys, angering them.

One of them is now the complainants’ spokesman. At the time, he said he wrote Mejorada a note telling him they were not ones who should be punished but the priest himself for what he did to them.

With that, the boys became more defiant and began talking openly about their alleged ordeal. This agitation was what allegedly led Mejorada to try to settle the issue and silence the boys.

The priest succeeded until the boys decided to bring the matter to Vidal and provide the media with copies of their complaint.

The story stung many members of the clergy, including Msgr. Achilles Dakay, Vidal’s media liaison officer, who said the treatment of the news was unfair because Mejorada was identified and the complaining former altar boys were not.

He said Mejorada and the Augustinian order should address the allegations properly. — Freeman News Service