CASE UNCLOSED: May 28 2009
Arnold Clavio
Category
️👩💻️
WebcamTranscript
00:00Innocent people who were robbed by pedophiles continue to victimize young people.
00:08Why did you arrest me?
00:12Why is it that no one is being punished here in our country?
00:16It's a natural crime.
00:18This is a big challenge for the government.
00:21But there are many unsolved cases every day.
00:24What we can say is that the right term that we can use is,
00:28that's why the parents are ordering their children to ask for help from these pedophiles.
00:38Good evening, I am Arnold Clavio.
00:40Yesterday's questions will be answered here in Case Unclosed.
00:53Two young pedophiles were found on the streets of Olongapo City.
01:06They were found selling their body to a pedophile.
01:16Nene was only 12 years old.
01:19They were already five siblings to their mother,
01:22that's why their father left them to their grandmother.
01:26Because their siblings are also homeless,
01:28their grandmother decided to send them to a boarding school.
01:33Nene was given to the care of a principal so that he can study.
01:38I heard that the principal treated him well.
01:42I know that the principal is a migrant in the state.
01:46The child was taken to the state.
01:50That's why the child was left behind.
01:53There are also rumors that the child left the principal and went to the streets.
02:03Boyet, who was with them, was only 13 years old.
02:08The two children crossed the street of Magsaysay Drive in Gapo.
02:17Nene and Boyet crossed the street.
02:20They passed by an Austrian foreigner, Ritter.
02:24He is said to be a tourist.
02:29But instead of going to the historical places of our country,
02:32Ritter went to Olongapo.
02:35Gapo is known as the red light district of the 80s.
02:40There are many sex bars and sex clubs.
02:42Back then, during the military rule,
02:46they welcomed and gave a lot of women and children available in sex clubs
02:53for foreigners and sex tourists.
02:59Ritter is said to be a sex tourist.
03:03On the night of October 12, 1986,
03:06Heinrich Stefan Ritter and his team
03:08hid the children in a hotel under the name of Neneng and Boyet.
03:15Take a bath.
03:18There was no sign of a foreigner who disturbed Boyet.
03:25Take off your clothes and come here.
03:28Neneng was followed by Ritter.
03:30Boyet was already asleep when this happened.
03:34Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Come on.
03:39Here.
03:43That's for you.
03:46Come on, go. Let's go.
03:48As the sun rose,
03:50the two children were quickly dispatched by a foreigner.
03:57When the two children left the hotel,
03:59Neneng told Boyet what Ritter did to his owner.
04:03He said that something was left inside.
04:05He did not report to the police about Neneng's condition.
04:12It hurts.
04:14The next day,
04:15Boyet found Neneng on the road that they considered as their home
04:19and he was in pain.
04:22It hurts, Boyet.
04:24That night was also the last time they saw each other.
04:27Boyet decided to leave the street life
04:30and start a new life.
04:35May 14, 1987,
04:37seven months after the abuse of the two children,
04:41Neneng was found unconscious.
04:52At that time,
04:54Neneng faced death alone.
04:58We did not know anything.
05:00That's why the case was not brought to the hospital
05:03because no one understood.
05:06We reported here in Apreda
05:09that there are also children in the hospital who are dying.
05:13If we can help,
05:15of course, we will help by giving money to the hospital.
05:20With the help of Father Shea Cullen's group,
05:23Neneng underwent surgery five days after he was brought to the hospital.
05:27The doctors said that a part of the vibrator was left inside Neneng's body.
05:37The doctor successfully removed the left part of the vibrator.
05:41But the next day,
05:42Neneng's condition worsened.
05:45It was very painful.
05:47It was very painful.
05:49It took a long time.
05:50There was no help.
05:52When we discovered it,
05:53it was too late.
05:55He died of infection and bleeding.
05:59It was because the part of the vibrator was left inside Neneng's body for a long time.
06:05I can't explain how I feel right now.
06:09I feel sorry for Neneng.
06:10And of course, I feel sorry for what he did.
06:17After Neneng's death,
06:18police found out that Boyet was with Neneng
06:22when he went to the hotel.
06:24Boyet was the one who became the suspect,
06:28Heinrich Stefan Ritter.
06:31Ritter was charged with rape with homicide of Neneng's family.
06:35Two years after Neneng was born,
06:37Ritter was sentenced guilty in Olongapo Regional Trial Court or RTC.
06:43Ritter was imprisoned for two years,
06:45but he appealed in the Supreme Court.
06:47The decision of Olongapo RTC was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1991.
06:53Ritter was acquitted.
06:56Boyet did not find out that Ritter was the one who put the vibrator inside Neneng's body.
07:02It is also suspected that it took seven months for the child to experience pain and infection.
07:10The Supreme Court also gave the testimony of gynecologist Asumuri Keneneng.
07:17Who put that inside your body?
07:20A black man used it and he put it inside my body.
07:26Judging from the testimony,
07:28it is possible that Keneneng used something else after the incident at the hotel.
07:34It was also not proven that Neneng was not 12 years old when Ritter used the vibrator.
07:40The age of sexual consent was 12 years in Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code.
07:45It means that the suspect cannot be charged with statutory rape if the child is 12 years old.
07:53Why is that? Isn't it rape if the child is 13 years old?
07:57Even if the child is 14 or 15 years old,
08:00if the child is not yet 18 years old,
08:03it is still considered as a child.
08:06Statutory rape is if the child is below 12.
08:12So if the child is 13 years old,
08:15you have to show that there is a force or threat or intimidation.
08:20After being charged with rape, the Supreme Court deported Ritter back to Austria.
08:25Because of this, he cannot return to the Philippines.
08:29After being charged with rape, he is free.
08:32The case cannot be followed up.
08:35After Ritter was acquitted,
08:38justice was not given to the death of Neneng.
08:44After the case of Rizal,
08:47there was not much change.
08:50Sex tourism continued.
08:52There was a lot of abuse of the child.
08:55Nothing happened.
08:57There were no convictions of others.
09:01Why? Why, Neneng?
09:05If the history of pedophilia will return to the Philippines,
09:09Neneng's case is not new.
09:12There are a lot of children like this.
09:15There are a lot of victims.
09:17They are the ones who do not care about them.
09:20This is a big challenge for the government.
09:23There are a lot of unsolved cases every day.
09:27For decades, Tentan has been one of the leading tourist spots in Pagsanhan.
09:3120,000 tourists visited Pagsanan Falls,
09:35where the main attraction is shooting the rapids.
09:44During the 80s, or even probably during the 70s,
09:48Pagsanhan, as it is now, is a popular destination.
09:53Because it is accessible from Manila.
09:56So for the tourists who don't come to Pagsanhan,
09:59so for the tourists who don't have a longer time to stay in the Philippines,
10:06they would be taken to Pagsanhan or in areas close to Manila
10:12because that is part of an optional tour.
10:15But because of the rise of tourism,
10:18pedophiles spread quickly.
10:23Pompom was called to the children victims of pedophilia in Pagsanhan.
10:27Whether male or female, the pedophiles did not let them pass.
10:32Pompom was six years old.
10:36They envy their neighbors, their peers,
10:41because they have all the material things that they need.
10:44But together with that is of course the very sexually oriented lifestyle.
10:56The income in Pagsanhan was limited.
10:59Most of the families were hoping for more than 100 pesos from the tourists.
11:06Well, these are hard times.
11:09The life of a person is hard.
11:12This is the strength of pedophilia in Pagsanhan.
11:15And we know that our tourist arrivals here are 60 to 70 percent foreigners.
11:2060 to 70 percent are foreigners.
11:23We can say that we use the right term,
11:27that's why the parents are asking their children to ask for help from these pedophiles.
11:37The prostitution was started by young bankers,
11:41who are often called gay foreigners.
11:44They are stripped naked, they dance,
11:48and then they have a competition to see who could sustain the longest erection.
11:54After that, they are brought to the room and they'll do their thing there.
11:59They pay for the services, they do what they want with them.
12:03In exchange for the sexual service,
12:06the pedophiles answered the cries of the young victims and the needs of their families.
12:11This is the most difficult thing to pull out from the community
12:17because they have been able to win the confidence and the trust of the whole family.
12:27Their perception is that when a child is abused,
12:32nothing is lost to the child.
12:34In front of the parents, the pedophiles are just being kissed,
12:37not knowing that behind closed doors,
12:42what kind of abuse is being done to their children.
12:50In 1988, a raid was launched against the pedophiles in Pagsanhan.
12:56Two robbers, 14 victims, and 22 pedophiles were arrested.
13:02Among the arrested were the American pedophile Andrew Harvey,
13:07who obtained the documents of almost 500 young victims.
13:13Three hundred children were abused and raped in Pagsanhan.
13:19Harvey came to Pagsanhan in 1989.
13:24And for seven years, he was on a rampage.
13:29And he used children to recruit other children and abused them all
13:39between the ages of 6 to 17.
13:43Harvey obtained the illicit pictures of the children.
13:47The information about their bodies, prices,
13:52the services provided to the pedophiles,
13:55and when they were last used is detailed.
13:58This shocked the entire community.
14:00It's the record, meticulous record,
14:03of the systematic sexual abuse of a child,
14:07graphically described by the victimizer.
14:10The arrested pedophiles were not jailed because there is no law against pedophilia in our country.
14:16They were just deported.
14:18There is no count of how many pedophiles were victims of pedophilia in Pagsanhan.
14:24Harvey was jailed when he returned to America.
14:28Because of his case in the Philippines,
14:30he was jailed for more than 20 cases of sexual abuse in his own country.
14:35It seems like what's coming out after Pagsanhan,
14:41of course, our law was not amended.
14:44It's the same, it's still the same.
14:47Our RPC, statutory rape or age of sexual consent is still below 12.
14:53Our child sexual offenders, they can get away easily.
15:00After more than two decades, there is still no law against pedophilia.
15:09Until now, the Congress is still pushing to increase the age of sexual consent to 16 years old
15:17so that the number of perpetrators of statutory rape can be expanded.
15:24There is almost no evidence that Pagsanhan was a victim of pedophilia.
15:31The local government is arguing that there are no more pedophiles in their country.
15:37This is the new Pagsanhan.
15:39We are doing close monitoring and surveillance.
15:42And we have deep penetration agents.
15:44Some are our townmates, some from neighboring towns.
15:47So that we can identify the bad elements.
15:51Definitely, the Harvey files, as I said, became a turning point.
15:56It had finally put a stigma to the name pedophilia.
16:04And now, after seeing the Harvey records,
16:09when they hear of the word pedophile,
16:12they equate it with the most abominable sexual acts against children.
16:20As the number of tourist spots in the country continues to increase,
16:23the number of foreign tourists is also increasing to 2.6 million.
16:28Some of them are feared as pedophiles.
16:34More single males come to the Philippines as tourists.
16:41But they are sex tourists.
16:43Whenever you have this tourist business,
16:45there are also prostitutes and minors.
16:53Actually, child sex tourism, if you can call it that,
16:58is a global phenomenon, not just in the Philippines.
17:04More often than not, the perpetrator usually comes from a more developed country,
17:11based on studies.
17:13And the victim comes from developing or undeveloped countries.
17:20So it is very difficult to detect.
17:24If snorkeling, scuba diving, and white beach in Malabaracay are popular in their falls and shooting the rapids,
17:34tourists from Puerto Galera come here.
17:37More than 100,000 tourists come here every year.
17:41After the public is aware of what is happening in the country,
17:51there are people who come from other places.
17:53For example, from Puerto Galera,
17:57there are many victims of the so-called pedophiles.
18:04According to DSWD,
18:06from 2005 to 2006,
18:1015 cases of pedophilia were reported in Puerto Galera.
18:15But only three victims approached them for help.
18:22We tried to get the attention of Mayor Christopher Dolor of Puerto Galera
18:27about the cases of pedophilia in their area.
18:30He refused to comment,
18:31but he insisted that there were no cases of pedophilia in his area.
18:38One of the victims of pedophilia in Puerto Galera
18:42is a child named Cecil.
18:46Cecil is from Tubo, Mindoro.
18:48She is only a year old.
18:50She was repeatedly abducted by a foreign pedophile who lives in their area.
18:58According to Cecil,
18:59her mother's friend is a foreigner.
19:03When I was a child,
19:06she introduced me to an American.
19:10We became friends.
19:15That's how we met.
19:21Her mother said that a foreigner saw their way to help them.
19:26He always helps us.
19:30If we don't have a job,
19:33my mother goes there.
19:36She gives money to an American.
19:41According to experts,
19:43Cecil is involved in what is called grooming.
19:46Grooming is preparation for sexual abuse.
19:49For example,
19:51grooming is about gaining the trust of the family,
19:57the victims,
19:59and the victims themselves
20:01so that they can have a place of their own.
20:04Grooming is about providing financial needs,
20:12household necessities,
20:14giving work to the parents,
20:15so that they can have a place of their own.
20:20A year later,
20:22the true motive of the abduction came out.
20:26It hurts.
20:28I thought that his help is irreplaceable,
20:31but it turns out that it is.
20:34At first, it seems like he's showing that he's kind,
20:38but he's trying to make up for what he did to us.
20:43He wants to make up for it.
20:47He told his mother how many times he's been abducted.
20:51I told him that I don't care about him anymore.
20:56Last Saturday,
20:58Cecil was abducted by his own mother.
21:01Every time we do that,
21:04my mother talks to them.
21:06I feel like
21:08I'm the one that they don't love.
21:14Why did I become like this?
21:16My mother doesn't treat them like that.
21:19Meanwhile,
21:21I feel like they don't love me.
21:27Because of the negligence of the neighbors,
21:30the authorities raided his house in 2004.
21:34Cecil was rescued and brought to a children's shelter in Manila.
21:39What usually happens is that they have to leave the place
21:44because they have parents who are not cooperative
21:47and parents that would usually side with the offender.
21:52He was accused of rape
21:54and acts of lasciviousness in 2004.
21:57The suspect is currently in prison while his case is being heard.
22:02Cecil's mother was not charged anymore.
22:05He was rescued in 2006 because of a bad feeling.
22:09Cecil's mother did not see him when he died.
22:15As of now, Cecil is still in the custody of the DSWD.
22:20He is continuing his studies to fulfill his dream of becoming a lawyer.
22:26Because what happened to me in the past
22:29will not happen again.
22:31I will fight for the rights of my children.
22:35Despite everything,
22:37he forgave his mother and hopes that one day,
22:40he will be able to be with his siblings.
22:43I want to go back to us
22:46because I want to be with my siblings
22:51and experience how it feels to be a sister to a sibling.
22:54Since May 2007,
22:56the Bureau of Immigration has arrested 18 former pedophiles.
23:0211 of them have already been deported
23:05while seven more are waiting to be deported.
23:08The pedophiles and child abusers are not afraid
23:14because they are not in prison.
23:16That's the problem here in the Philippines.
23:18They have been in prison for a very short period of time.
23:21After they get out of jail,
23:24we don't know if they are totally rehabilitated.
23:30We don't know if they will still commit the same offense
23:35because that is their disease.
23:37So we don't know.
23:39Probably what will happen is
23:41it's just that they will still commit the same offense.
23:44So we don't know.
23:46Probably what will happen is it's just going to be a cycle.
23:52For the Department of Tourism of DOT,
23:55tourism should not be blamed for the arrival of pedophiles.
23:59Because each of us, all citizens have responsibilities.
24:06We cannot fault the mayor,
24:10we cannot fault the police,
24:11we cannot fault the different government agencies
24:14because on our own,
24:16we also have the duty to report cases,
24:20even your suspicions.
24:22They are looking for a way for the pedophilia to not spread again in our country.
24:28We are hoping that countries will exchange information
24:34so that the country will not be able to enter the country.
24:37So that immigration can be prevented.
24:38So I think that is one thing that should be worked on.
24:43We have raised the wealth of our country high.
24:48We cannot deny the opportunities that will be opened because of tourism.
24:53But the ascent should not be taken as a compromise.
24:57We should be vigilant because we are still children
25:01and that is our priority.
25:03Until next Thursday, I am Arnold Clavio.
25:05Here are yesterday's questions.
25:08We will discuss them here on Case Unclosed.