Just a priest?

DIE HARD III

Herman Tiu Laurel

1/14/2013

Daily Tribune

A Jesuit priest recently passed away and the mainstream media and members of "civil society" were full of glowing obituaries for him.
When I was a college student, I also had been an innocent admirer of the man since everybody else was. College life in exclusive Catholic schools generated such kind of enthusiasm, in that "elite" students were made to patronize the stage plays produced and conducted by this priest in his exclusive girls' school down in Malate. You were "in" when you could sing lines from his version of Carousel and other Broadway plays and musicals. As he was knighted by mainstream media's celebrities as a "mentor to generations," who would ever question the shining aura of this priest?

Still, there is one facet of this character that should be retold — that of the celebrated rape case against Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith. It began on Nov. 1, 2005 with four US Marines out to have a good time in Olongapo. In the course of their merriment, the four got embroiled in a case that would grip Philippine media for at least five years. It was "People of the Philippines vs Chad Carpentier, Dominic Duplantis, Keith Silkwood and Daniel Smith," in a criminal rape case involving Nicole (not her real name) who accused them of gang rape. Later Nicole zeroed in on Daniel Smith as the rapist (while the rest cheered) in a moving Starex van at Alava Pier in Subic. The US Marines' defense was that the sex was consensual.

That Smith gained "carnal knowledge" (as the narrative quaintly states) of Nicole was beyond any doubt, with the accused claiming "consensual sex." Thus, the tug-of-war for the public's sympathy, bolstered by Nicole's statements, as well as support from militant nationalist women's groups, raged. Throughout that time, the recently deceased Jesuit openly sided with the US Marines and cast offensive aspersions on Filipino nationalism and women's advocates. After countless court hearings, in December 2005, Judge Benjamin Pozon of Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 139 found Smith guilty of rape, sentencing him to life imprisonment as the prescribed by law. No American soldier had ever been convicted of raping a Filipino woman until then.

After the conviction, Smith was whisked off to the US Embassy instead of a Philippine jail. From beginning to end, the controversy became all the more explosive in light of the VFA (Visiting Forces Agreement), as it highlighted the abusive and iniquitous treatment the Philippines receives from its "partner," the US of A.
The role of the Jesuit in question is underscored by an article dated Sept. 5, 2006 by noted US journalist Seth Mydans, entitled, "Is he really just a spiritual adviser?" Mydans writes, "Leaning forward in his wheelchair at the front of a courtroom is a small, bald man in a crisply ironed white cassock, his eyes darting from witness to judge to angry lawyer, drawing his own conclusions. 'I think it was seduction,' said the man in the cassock, James Reuter, of the highly charged case…" The declaration, "I think it was seduction," Mydans argues, "(has) a discordant ring in a trial that has been cast by nationalists and women's groups as a symbol of US abuse and exploitation. This was made especially so, Mydans adds, since the priest had "no formal role in the case but has taken it upon himself to be not only a spiritual adviser but also an energetic advocate for the marines."

Mydans thus saw Reuter "gambling away his goodwill," quoting Evalyn Ursua: "I feel pity for Father Reuter… I think he is allowing his position to be used as a propaganda ploy to deodorize the accused. And for that reason alone I have lost all respect for him. Obviously his nationality is a paramount factor…"
Reuter replied, "I'm not doing this because I'm an American," yet immediately countered this by saying, "Now I'm asked by an American. Am I going to say no?'"
In the countless US servicemen's rape cases, I don't recall Reuter ever lifting a finger to help any of the Filipino victims, unlike others like Fr. Shay Cullen. Mentoring "collegialas" is great, but what about poor Filipino women who have to decide between selling their bodies and keeping their souls?

Reuter said of the marines, "They're nice guys, clean cut guys," even though they cheered on Smith. About the nationalist rallies, he said, "They bring a mob." And of Filipinos, he had this to say, "The (Filipino) people… are very prayerful." Then he ended by suddenly including himself into the picture. "Are we poor?" asked Reuter. "Yes we are. Are we getting poorer? Yes we are. How is it going to be getting better? I don't know… It seems a discouraging assessment after nearly 70 years in the Philippines… That doesn't sound like an economic plan, but that's what I think."

Over a century of US domination and 70 years of the Jesuit Reuter teaching the Philippine "elite" to sing and dance to Broadway may well account for why the Philippines, with its leaders aping their colonial overlords, still has no economic plan to speak of.

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