The uncharitable act of depriving a single mother of her child

LAST Friday, May 26, a 20-month-old baby son, whose then-pregnant mother was forced to place him in temporary custody with the Quezon City orphanage Gentle Hands Inc. (GHI) in January this year, was finally reunited with his biological mother through the assistance of the National Capital Region field office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-NCR).

Baby Marzan was reunited with his 27-year-old mother, Melanie Marzan, after the DSWD-NCR issued a parental capability assessment report that facilitated the release of the child to his mother after a separation of more than four months.

Baby Marzan was among the more than 140 children taken into custody by the DSWD from Gentle Hands Inc. after the department issued a cease-and-desist order on May 22 based on a complaint that the private orphanage had committed a violation of Republic Act 7610, or the “Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.”

On May 23, Baby Marzan and other children 7 years old and below were taken to the Reception and Study Center for Children (RSCC) in Bago Bantay, Quezon City. The rest of the children from GHI were brought to Elsie Gaches Village in Alabang, Muntinlupa and the Nayon ng Kabataan in Mandaluyong.

Records show that on Jan. 30, 2023, Melanie Marzan placed her son in the temporary custody of GHI’s Quezon City childcare facility due to her pregnancy.

At the time, Melanie was unable to take care of Baby Marzan until she had given birth. On April 25, Melanie successfully gave birth to her third child at the World City Medical Center.

Right after her discharge from the hospital, Melanie sought to get Baby Marzan back from GHI since the facility’s custody was only temporary and the mother still exercises full parental control over her son.

On February 2, Melanie went to GHI in Project 4, Quezon City, to visit her son, but she was only allowed to see him for 10 minutes.

When she requested to be reunited with her son, GHI informed her that it was not possible because the client had not yet stayed with the childcare facility for three months. What the threemonth rule was based on, only Charity Heppner Graff knows.

“Ms. Marzan’s plea fell on deaf ears. Gentle Hands, through its executive director Ms. Charity Graff, continues to illegally detain Baby Marzan for no justifiable and legal reason,” according to the 8888 citizen’s complaint that Melanie filed.

The continued refusal of Ms. Graff to release Baby Marzan to his rightful mother prompted Melanie to file a complaint before the Office of the President-Office of the Cabinet Secretary (OP-OCS) 8888 Citizens Complaint Hotline based in Malacañang compound.

Based on the 8888 complaint, the DSWD-NCR sought out Melanie and she underwent counseling through a social worker. Her concerns regarding Baby Marzan were communicated to GHI, but there was no response from Ms. Graff.

The DSWD-NCR sent a letter to GHI addressed to Ms. Graff dated March 28, 2023 seeking clarification on the matter, but the letter was ignored by the GHI’s executive director.

The actuations of Ms. Graff, a Canadian citizen who has been issued a working visa by the Bureau of Immigration, run counter to Filipino values which place importance on families, with young children not to be separated from their mothers and fathers.

“To blatantly deny Baby Marzan the loving care of his mother, Melanie, contravenes the essence of a Filipino family and runs counter to the policies and principles, which the DSWD protects and promotes,” said the DSWD spokesman, Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez.

Lopez stressed that Philippines laws are very clear that it is in the best interest of the child to be with the mother unless declared otherwise by a court of law.

“Since there is no court order declaring Ms. Marzan unfit to be a parent, then Gentle Hands has no right to refuse her request for the return of her son,” Lopez said.

He said the DSWD was also looking into other similar cases involving children under the temporary custody of GHI. “When the mothers requested the GHI for the return-custody of their children, the GHI refused to heed the mothers’ plea, similar to the case of Baby Marzan,” Lopez said.

Clearly, the refusal of GHI to return Baby Marzan to his mother is an uncharitable action, which is also unchristian. And this is contrary to GHI’s mission which is “to provide family-style care and hope for children who have experienced trauma.”

Thank God Baby Marzan is now finally with his mom.

***

Three fingers pointing back. Eduardo Mañalac burst into the national scene like a johnny-come-lately to raise a ruckus about the extension of Malampaya Service Contract 38 (SC 38) that allows the continued operation and production of the gas field for another 15 years.

At a time when energy demand is exceeding supply and the country needs to reduce dependence on oil imports, Mañalac, former energy undersecretary and president of Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), is claiming that the service contract has led to losses for the government and the Filipino people.

This self-styled guardian of Malampaya pointed an accusing finger at the parties involved in SC 38, saying they should have “the expertise and the money (dapat may alam at may pera)” to implement the gas field contract — insinuating that they are bereft of both.

But what Mañalac probably forgot is that, as the cautionary saying goes, if you point an accusing finger at someone, three fingers point back at you.

As he himself admitted at a recent public forum, he was deeply involved in negotiations to sell 5 percent of the government stake in PNOC Exploration Corp. (PNOCEC) to a South Korean company.

The deal did not push through after the National Economic and Development Authority, under the then-Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri, opposed it. Neri, in fact, made a very emotional appeal to then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo against the sale that would have, to use Mañalac’s own words, resulted in losses for the government and the Filipino people.

Almost two decades since the aborted deal, Mañalac is now claiming, belatedly, that he supported it against his will.

“Of course, I was against it, but you have to follow. You argue against it but at the end of the day, you try to obey the instructions as best you can,” he said.

Mañalac wants us to believe now that he, while against his will, acted in the best interest of the nation, that he was simply a good soldier even if it meant supporting something that he knew was wrong to please higher powers and keep his job.

Mañalac also played a key role in a tripartite deal with China and Vietnam — the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking or JMSU — that would have allowed China’s CNOOC and Vietnam’s PetroVietnam to conduct scientific studies for the presence of oil or gas deposits on a 142,886 square kilometer area in the West Philippine Sea inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

He supported the JMSU, but again distanced himself from the deal many years later, conveniently after the Supreme Court struck down the accord.

The high court ruled that the JSMU was “unconstitutional for allowing wholly-owned foreign corporations to participate in the exploration of the country’s natural resources without observing the safeguards provided in Section 2, Article XII of the 1987 Constitution.”

Again, Mañalac claimed that he only played the role of a good soldier and gallantly affixed his signature on the JMSU as PNOC head.

“It is not my idea. It is the idea of the government as part of its energy independence strategy,” he said.

In the first, he swore 18 years after the fact that he acted against his will. In the second, he swore 11 years after the fact that it was not his idea.

Never mind if the two transactions are now being thrown at Mañalac’s face as signs of where his loyalties lie as the deals involved foreign entities in an industry where the Constitution is clear about Filipino prior rights. Being a good soldier, eh? Surely, by toeing the line which he said was dictated to him by higher powers, Mañalac was able to keep his job as energy undersecretary and concurrently president and CEO of PNOC.

That’s not a surprising reward for being a good soldier.

When a changing of guards took place in the Department of Energy and PNOC, it would seem that Mañalac found it an opportune time to sit back, relax and enjoy his retirement from government service.

He was not heard of and appeared to have gone quietly into the night or so we thought.

But then came the renewal of SC 38 to operate the Malampaya gas field. Not waiting for the ink to dry on the document, Mañalac thrust himself into the limelight to lash out at the contract renewal, portraying it as a monster that lurked in the dark like the imaginary ones that old folks use to scare children.

Unqualified, he ranted at Prime Infra, the company that now leads the Malampaya consortium. In a strongly worded reply, tycoon Enrique Razon, who heads Prime Infra, shouted “treason” in Mañalac’s direction.

Show me proof of qualification, Mañalac challenged the DoE despite these staring him and everyone in the face — the team of all-Filipino experts operating Malampaya was kept intact and even reinforced with additional Filipino experts and the fact that the new consortium operated Malampaya without a hitch for six months prior to Mañalac’s rant.

To the cries of “treason” thrown in his direction, Mañalac’s reply was to disavow the failed bid to sell 5 percent of the government stake in PNOC-EC and the JMSU.

A good soldier belatedly realizing he followed illegal orders?

Let Mr. Mañalac get away with that. But what about the noise that he is now generating at the continuation of Malampaya operations which is not only key to the Philippines’ energy supply but also the country’s revenue position?

What has Mr. Mañalac swallowed that is now driving his vocal cords to overwork?

Could it be the apparent snub of his self-assessed ball-handling skills as a point guard in the energy sector which he so enjoyed playing in his DoE and PNOC heydays?

It must have been painful for Mr. Mañalac’s ego as a self-professed energy expert to have been left out in the choice of technical advisors by Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla for the Malampaya contract extension.

It was a snub akin to a selfengrossed ball player wanting to join a group of players already on the court but being ignored.

After all, Mr. Mañalac, it turns out, is still holding the ball that he dribbled at least 20 years ago.

He can lay claim to expertise in the energy industry, spending at least 20 years in government in that sector, but his past actions would lay bare the fallacy of his claim of having the national interest in mind in ranting against the extension of SC 38.

As Mr. Mañalac wags his finger at a project that has already generated more than P340 billion in revenues for the government, three or more fingers are wagging back at him.