Father Shay Cullen a Real Irish Revolutionary hero.

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Wednesday August 10, 2005 13:12

by Plato

Re: ITV and RTE News Reports of child abuse Philippines

Please donate to this fantastic cause.

Fr. Shay Cullen is a Missionary priest from Ireland, now 59, a member of the Missionary Society of St. Columban, an Irish organization working for human rights around the world. After he finished six years of college education, in Ireland he was sent to the Philippines in 1969 and worked among the youth and drug dependents in Olongapo City. This was the homeport of the US Military base at Subic Bay. The social situation was corrupt because of the huge sex industry that sexually exploited women selling them to the marines in hundreds of clubs and brothels and on the street. This evil business and caused the spread of drug abuse, the AIDS virus, broken homes and child sexual abuse on a huge scale.

Fr. Shay learned to speak the Filipino language fluently, adapted quickly to the Filipino culture, and showed a deep understanding and solidarity with the suffering of the poor. He began working for human rights and protecting young people from the dreaded death squads that roamed the city that protected the US military personnel on recreation. There were 16,000 women and children prostituted in to the hundreds of bars, nightclubs and brothels that lined the streets of Olongapo.

In 1974, he established the Preda foundation The People’s Recovery Empowerment Development Assistance Foundation Inc. (PREDA) to help the victims of torture and military oppression by the Marcus martial law regime and it became a sanctuary for those threatened with summary execution by the military. The Preda center became famous for the help given to young people dependent on drugs.

With the help of the assistant founders of Preda, Alex and Merely Hermoso, a therapeutic community developed that brought healing and empowerment to the young people that came seeking renewal of life and help with many personal and family problems.

Fr. Shay and his co-workers developed Emotional Release Therapy that enabled the young person to express the deepest emotional pain of childhood and to release it with all the pent-up pain, hostility and anger. This was called scream or cry therapy and is used until the present to help sexually abused children who come to PREDA to seek refuge from their abusers

In 1982 together with Alex Hermoso, Fr. Shay discovered and exposed a huge child sex business that was selling young children to the US military for sex. The local Filipino officials who made big money from the sex industry were angry and tried to have him deported and discredited. However, Fr. Shay won his legal cases one after another but was harassed and threatened the more he exposed the evil trade in little children. The sax mafia has tried to close the Preda center with the help of corrupt politicians in Olongapo city. He tried to restore Filipino dignity and self-confidence that had been taken away by the colonel presence of the US military that dominated the community.

He began a campaign against the military bases, proposed, and advised how they could be converted into productive industrial parks providing employment with dignity for the Filipinos. Local politicians opposed him and his plans. After ten years of campaigning with other NGOs finally, the political battle was won and the US bases had to close. Fr. Cullen's conversion plan was realized and the facilities were converted into the high tech computer and other production zones. There are as many as fifty thousand Filipino working in good condition in these converted military bases today because of Fr. Shay Cullen and the Preda co-workers. It is a big success for the peace movement.

The Preda center has many social services that help street children, children in prison. The help release the child from jail. The project provides a therapeutic home that helps heal sexually abused children and a Preda legal office pursues the offenders and brings them to justice.

The Preda workers have uncovered international syndicates trafficking children and have brought offenders to justice in Europe and North America with the help of the Interpol and national police officers.

Fr. Cullen is one of the early founders of the Fair Trade Movement in the Philippines and was an early board member of the International Federation of Alternative Trade (IFAT). He set up with Mrs. Merely Hermoso the Preda Fair Trade organization and today thousands of Filipino benefit from the projects. Fair Trade criteria are spread in industry and are implemented and practiced in many projects.

The export of dried mangos is perhaps one of the biggest success stories. Thousands of farmers benefit because of this export .the gets interest free loans, advice and training on organic methods of production. They receive the best prices and the volume of sales has almost eliminated the buying cartels that dominated the lives of the poor farmers and keep prices at low levels. Mango Puree is mixed with organic apples in Germany for a tropical apple mango drink that is very popular. Today prosperity has come to the farmers and they remain in their villages. This has reduced greatly the migration of people to the cities. In this way the alleviation of poverty prevents the prostitution of impoverished and slum dwelling children.

Fr. Shay is a popular international speaker, campaigner, media commentator, a writer and journalist. He was an invited delegate to the conference drafting the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Helsinki 1989, and is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2001. Fr. Shay was awarded a German Human Rights of the City of Weimar Award in December 2000 and an Italian Human Rights Award at the City of Ferrara, 2001. Numerous newspaper articles and Television documentaries have reported the success of his work protecting children and campaigning for human rights.

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Comments (4 of 4)

Preda Facts

by Alan Dale Edmonds

Sun Jan 18, 2009 04:12

purok 6, West Dirita, San Antonio, Zambales, Philippines 2206

Some of the information in the story submitted by Preda may be true, but some of it definitely is not, according to documents and admissions by the founder himself in his book "Passion and Power."

For example, Preda was founded by stealing the property from Father Bob Garon, Shay Cullen's superior. In his book, "Passion and Power", he fully admitted that he was working as an agent and not on his own. In my book, "Hard Questions" (obtainable from the Love and Human Rights Forum, 1-43-1 Kumegawa, Higashimurayama, Tokyo,, Japan 189-0003, Phone/FAX: 042-391-7876 - all proceeds are theirs, I collect nothing), I show the original Aritcles of Incorporation document - misspelled, hand corrected, four pages - as well as other pertinent documents such as public documents demanding the deportation of Shay Cullen over several years, some by his own workers.

In his book, Shay Cullen denounces the Filipinos, calling the police "Keystone Cops" and so forth, even to the point of stating that the sitting President, Gloria Magpapagal-Arroyo by name, Nazi-like in her bid to secure power, including reference to killing torture and beheadings! He referred to me as "American Joe" for which I filed libel against him. His defense: The book is not for sale in the Philippines, so the case was dismissed.

The above statements are placed here to show clearly that the man is not the great person he purports himself to be.

Another point, found on the fourth paragraph of the story, he says that the foundation was set up with help by Alex Corpus Hermoso, but in the book by Shay Cullen, he places Alex as being in high school, and indeed, the name of Alex Corpus Hermoso does not appear on the Articles of Incorporation until 1979, five years after the fact!

Here is a point that I personally find disturbing, and it is in reference to his claim of Emotional Release Therapy, which he admits is called scream or cry therapy. This has often been called by him "Primal Therapy" in other writings. Children should not have to cry their way out of pain. Childhood fears and hurts should be gentled. Didn't Jesus say "Suffer the little children to come unto me."? Forcing a child to cry and scream an hour a day is unhealthy brainwashing, and I have a point to this statement:

My daughter was picked up by Preda at 3:30 in the afternoon from her school, located 45 minutes' liesure drive from Preda Foundation. She was raped there. In his defense, Shay Cullen submitted a doctored logbook entry where the date was changed from 30 January to 29 January and the title on the page was "Night Duty". Topping this off, he submitted a second log entry, this time in English, but signed by the same two workers. Both pages noted directly after my daughter's name, "Exactly 5 AM ..."

How is it that my daughter managed to get into Preda in the morning that she was picked up in the afternoon?

Further compounding this is the fact that later, two sworn statements by the staff state that my daughter was not in Preda custody until 31 January, two days after the event at hand!

Here is where the point of my accusation of "brainwashing" comes to light: The two police reports generated in relation to her "rape" for which she was taken from her school points to one child, the son of my house maid at the time. This is further correllated with the sworn statement of Mila Fronda, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), who stated that she interviewed the teachers, my daughter's classmates and others in relation to the event and only the name of the boy was brought to light.

The "protective custody" was to have lasted 3-5 days, according to a written note I have from the DSWD. After a week, I was beginning to ask hard questions, and on February 5 is the first instance where the name of my adopted son comes out as an additional rapist.

Note here I said "adopted son" because he was legally adopted, having been born two years before his mother and I were wed. In all of Shay Cullen's writings, I can find no instance where he calls my son "adopted", but he calls my daughter adopted at every chance he has, yet she was born 15 months after her mother and I were wed. Think about it.

This is my proposed evidence of brainwashing of a child.

Here is another point: In Shay Cullen's writings and verbal deliveries, he claims I was having an affair with the daughter of my house maid. Now, my daughter was in Preda Foundation from 29 January 1998 until 26 February 1998, and subsequently in the DSWD custody from 26 February 1998 until 20 May 1998, yet in all that time, she never uttered one statement that I was sleeping or having sex with that child.

Think about the implications of that!

I take issue with the fact that Preda was set up as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility. They have no business dealing with both drug addicts and sexually abused women and children, and now he is adding to the mixture jailed inmates that he has freed and placed on the grounds without guards or supervision, as admitted in his book "Passion and Power."

How healthy is that?

I also take note that his organization appears to be a money-generating organization, as he has stated in sworn statements that he has cared for 20-45 children with a staff of 20 to 25, so where are all his donations going?

There is so much more that I can tell your readers, but I recommend that they either buy my book as mentioned above or visit my web site at http://preda-facts.info for more information and questions as to the legality and lack of godliness in the priest named Shay Cullen.

oops

by mary belmullet

Thu Aug 11, 2005 13:24

what I forgot to ask was where do we donate for Fr. Shays projects? Any Bank account?

A few good Irish still left

Thu Aug 11, 2005 13:19

Irishman Fr Shay is Irelands saving grace. It is people like him that has halted Ireland's reputation from slipping into the quagmire of dishonesty, corruption, greed & materialism that characterizes Irish Public Life today.

He is a wondeful person and Ireland must give him every support in the good work he carries out in the Phillipines.

Laoch

by Duine

Wed Aug 10, 2005 19:10

Seo laoch.
Duine daonna a bhfuil mé bródúil as.
Nár laga Dia é!

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Father Shay Cullen a Real Irish Revolutionary hero.

Comments (4 of 4)