PHILIPPINES
Inquirer
By: Jodee A. Agoncillo – Reporter / @jagoncilloINQPhilippine Daily Inquirer
A parish priest was arrested in a joint police operation for allegedly trafficking a 13-year-old female minor while they were on their way to a motel in Marikina City on Friday evening, police said.
A report reaching Chief Supt. Romulo Sapitula, Eastern Police District director, said Arnel Lagarejos, 55, the parish priest of St. John the Baptist Parish in Taytay, Rizal, was arrested around 6:30 p.m. at Blue Wave Mall on Sumulong Highway, in Barangay (village) Sto. Niño, Marikina City for an alleged violation of the anti-trafficking in persons act.
A report by the Marikina police said Lagarejos allegedly booked the minor, also an out-of-school youth, through 16-year-old gay boy “ARB” who served as pimp and was reported to be meeting them at the Blue Wave Mall.
Recovered by police as evidence were an iPhone 5s cellphone containing messages of their transaction between the victim, pimp and suspect priest , and a gray Ford explorer with plate number TGO 350 reportedly owned by the suspect.
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