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Filipino Priest in Child Abuse Case Suspended

By Manolo B. Jara
Gulf Today
August 1, 2017

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/9094f846-5a42-4b1d-ae00-e5af58de91aa.aspx

The influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Monday ordered the suspension of a 55-year-old parish priest, also the president of a Catholic-run college, who was arrested by the police for allegedly soliciting the services of a 13-year-old girl.

In a statement, the CBCP also announced in its website, it would conduct a separate but parallel investigation with the police on the case of Monsignor Arnel Lagarejos who was arrested on Friday by the police in suburban Marikina City in Metro in Manila in the company of the girl aboard a vehicle on their way to a motel.

The CBCP named Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, its former president, to conduct a separate inquiry which, if found guilty, would lead to his dismissal from priesthood.

His suspension also meant Lagarejos was stripped of his priestly duties like celebrating mass, according to CBCP.

Earlier, Lagarejos was likewise relieved of his post as the president of the Cainta Catholic College in the town of Cainta, Rizal province in Southern Luzon where he was the concurrent parish priest.

Based on his Linkedin account, Lagarejos has a doctorate degree in Moral Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University run by the Vatican in Rome.

At the same time, Senior Superintendent Roger Quesada, the police chief, disclosed that this was the third time that Lagarejos had allegedly solicited the services of the girl, through a pimp, also a minor at 16-year-old.

“They had met before. According to the girl, their appointment on Friday would have been their third time,” Quesada said on the arrest of Lagarejos with the girl aboard his sport utility vehicle on their way to a motel in Marikina.

“The girl,” he added, “went with the priest because there was money involved. She said the priest paid her $50 per booking.”

The Lagarejos case is believed to be one of rare instances of a Catholic priest arrested by the police for child abuses and getting wide publicity from the print and broadcast media in this predominantly Catholic nation of more than 100 million Filipinos.

The case also came at time during the “uneasy truce” between some CBCP members and Duterte who angrily responded to their criticisms on the government’s intensified but bloody war on illegal drugs.

 

 

 

 

 




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