Altar Boy Who Called Out Sexual Abuse in the Philippines Is Now a Lawyer for Victims

Michal Gatchalian dared to speak out against sexual abuse by a priest in the devoutly Catholic Philippines. He’s now a lawyer helping other victims.

the global profile

The Altar Boy Who Refused to Hush Up

Michal Gatchalian dared to speak out against sexual abuse by a priest in the devoutly Catholic Philippines. He’s now a lawyer helping other victims.

Michal Gatchalian last year in front of a makeshift altar he had setup at his suburban village’s clubhouse. He no longer goes to the church where he was an altar boy.

the global profile

The Altar Boy Who Refused to Hush Up

Michal Gatchalian dared to speak out against sexual abuse by a priest in the devoutly Catholic Philippines. He’s now a lawyer helping other victims.

Michal Gatchalian last year in front of a makeshift altar he had setup at his suburban village’s clubhouse. He no longer goes to the church where he was an altar boy.Credit...

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By Sui-Lee Wee and Aie Balagtas See

Photographs by Jes Aznar

Sui-Lee Wee interviewed Michal Gatchalian over four days in Cebu City, the Philippines and reviewed more than 200 pages of court documents.

May 12, 2026Updated 2:08 a.m. ET

As an altar boy in the late 1990s, Michal Gatchalian spent almost every Sunday at a centuries-old Roman Catholic basilica in Cebu City, the Philippines. There he met a fun-loving priest who gave the boys rides on his motorcycle.

On Jan. 11, 1998, the priest, Apolinario “Jing” Mejorada, invited the then 17-year-old Mr. Gatchalian and another altar boy to the movies. At the theater, the teenagers said, he molested them. About 20 months later, Mr. Gatchalian said Father Mejorada sexually abused him again. That episode, he said, occurred at the home of the priest, who demanded oral sex from him. Mr. Gatchalian said he refused.

A month later, Mr. Gatchalian complained to church leaders. His efforts went nowhere and he decided to take his case to the courts, in what was a remarkable act at the time. He was the rare abuse victim who publicly fought for accountability in the Philippines, a devoutly Catholic country, before the Roman Catholic Church’s clergy abuse scandal ricocheted across the globe.

But even after Father Mejorada admitted in court proceedings that he had “fondled and touched” the boys’ thighs, justice remained elusive.

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Mr. Gatchalian showing a photo of himself in his cassock. He was an altar boy at the Basílica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebu, which was founded in the 1500s.

Now 45, Mr. Gatchalian is a lawyer and has started a group to help other survivors of clergy abuse with legal advice and moral support, becoming the public face of victims in the Philippines where so few have dared to come forward. The church in the country, critics say, continues to close ranks to protect its own.

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