kyig6809@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Kenneth Yerro Ilio ) (05/19/91)
The Supreme Court of the Philippines handed down its decision: Heinrich Ritter, an Austrian accused of inserting a vibrator in the vagina of a street child which eventually caused her death, had been acquitted. Ritter had been charged with rap;e with homicide after Rosario Baluyot died due to massive infection caused by the foreign object inside her body. The final verdict of the Supreme Court was that "Heinrich Stefan Ritter is ACQUITTED on grounds of reasonable doubt." Ritter was ordered to pay P30,000 (a little over US$ 1000), and deportation proceedings were instituted. The decision was made with obvious regret. In its statement, the Court declared that it 'deplores the lack of criminal laws which will adequately protect street childreen from exploitation, pedophiles, pimps, and, perhaps, their own parents or guardians who profit from the sale of young bodies." Ironically, the decision was handed down on March 5, 1991, just a few days before the country's first official celebration of Araw ng Kababaihan, or National Women's DAy. Backgrounder: Rosario Baluyot was a street child who have made Olongapo City"s pavement as her home. Olongapo, often called the city of sin is the city which is right outside the US naval base and which caters to the rest and recreation needs of US servicemen. What her life was as a street life before her encounter with Ritter is not known and testimonies given during the trial only gave a partial picture. Her exact date of birth has never been established and this was one of the crucial points of the Ritter trial. Some of the highlights of the case are as follows: 10 October 1986: Ritter brought Rosario and Jessie, another street child to his hotel room paying P300 to Rosario. The next day, Ritter left. Rosario told her compation that the "American" (all whites in the Philippines are called Kano or American) had inserted something in her vagina. The following day, Jessie asked Rosario if she had removed the object, which she did, but Rosario complained of abdominal pains. 14 May 1987: Rosario was found unconscious and fould smelling in the streets of Olongapo. She was brought to the hospital and diagnosed to be suffering from gastroenteritis. 17 May 1987: Reexamination by doctors found that there was a foreign object inside her vagina. Medical records show that she had peritonitis due to massive infection of the abdominal cavity. 19 May 1987: Rosario was operated on and the foreign object which was identified as the broken tip of a vibrator taken out. 20 May 1987: Rosario's condition became serious. She died at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. 25 Sept 1987: Ritter was arrested in Manila and jailed. Three months later, he got out after an out-of-court settlement with Rosario's grandmother. He was rearrested however after a judge nullifed the settlement. 28 March 1989: A regional court established guilt of the accused beyonds reasonable doubt for the crime of rape with homicide. Ritter was sentenced to life imprisonmenmt and to indemnify Rosario's grandmother the sum of P60,000. 5 March 1991: The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the RTC and acquitted Ritter. The case against Ritter crumbled when the prosecution was not able to prove that Rosario was under 12 years old when she was abused. According to the Revised Penal Code, rape is committed even without force or intimidation only if the woman is under 12 years of age. Other points which raised reasonable doubt and led to the acquittal: (1) since the proof of Rosario's age is not satisfactory, the prosectution has to prove force, intimidation or deprivation of reason in order to convict for rape. There is no such proof. The evidence shows a willingness to submit to the sexual act for monetary considerations; (2) No witness of the actual insertion of vibrator, etc. (3) According the medical testimony, infection would have set in months earlier; (3) the gynecologist who attended to Rosario testified that the child told him that a black man placed the vibrator inside her. Ritter's acquittal raised an outcry, not necessarily against the Court decision itself, but to the inability of legislature to enact laws which would protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. The Philippines Penal Code is bassed on Spanish laws and was enacted in 1932 when the nation did not yet face unrelenting poverty, and half a century before the sex tourist came streaming into the country. The Penal Code is particularly archaic when it comes to laws covering rape, white slavery and abduction, which are referred still as crimes against chastity. The Supreme Court had said that it regretted having to seemingly set back the efforts of the government in preventing sexual abuse of children. Government efforts however could only be described as half-hearted. The Philippines is signatory to the International Declaration of the Rights of the Child, but hardly anything is being done to protect children from poverty, exploitation, and violence. Many bills which provide for the protection of children against sexual exploitation and impose stronger deterrence against the prostitution and sexual exploitation of minors are in the process of being acted upon by the legislature but they act on it slower than a snail's pace. Many groups have reacted that if these bills had been acted upon with more dispatch, then Ritter, and other pedophiles like him would have been convicted. Pedophiles in the Philippines. The abuse and degradation of Filipino children is complex and deeply rooted. The collapse of the Philippine economy during the Marcos regime necessitated polices which would generate more income. Tourism, viewed as an easy way to earn dollars, was actively promoted, and even became sone of the pet projects of the then First Lady Imelda Marcos. The policy was to lure tourists to the country, at any cost. But whereas before, when the tourist attractions were beaches and the famous sunsets, the Philippines was transmogrified into a sex destination, a pedophile paradise, famous for sun, sea and sex. Rampant poverty forced adults and children, male and female, into prostitution. These problems are endimic and should have been acted upon by government years earlier. In an apparent rebuke the Supreme Court stressed that pedophiles like Ritter will continue to enter the Philippines and foreign publications catering to them will continue to advertise the availability of Filipino street children unless the government acts and acts soon. Major source of this article: Health Alert Issue 115 i