Priest walks free; no bail for pimp

MANILA, Philippines - A priest arrested in Marikina City Friday for allegedly “booking” the sexual services of a 13-year-old girl was released from police custody yesterday after posting bail.

This developed as Marikina Mayor Marcelino Teodoro expressed dismay over the prosecutor’s recommendation for denial of bail only for the 16-year-old pimp who set up “meetings” between Msgr. Arnel Lagarejos and the girl.

Teodoro said he is looking into reports that a retired judge lobbied for Lagarejos to be granted bail. Teodoro refused to elaborate.

The priest was released from the Marikina City Jail after posting bail just before 3 p.m. yesterday, city police chief Senior Superintendent Roger Quezada reported to Chief Superintendent Romulo Sapitula, Eastern Police District director.

On Monday, chief inquest prosecutor Ricardo Paet Jr. approved the recommendation of prosecutor Pierre Nikolai Salinas to charge Lagarejos with the use of trafficked persons, which violates Republic Act 9208, the human trafficking law, in relation to Section 13 of RA 10364 or the expanded human trafficking law, in further relation to RA 8369 or the family courts law.

Paet set bail for Lagarejos at P120,000.

Surprised

Teodoro said he was disappointed by deputy city prosector Linda Adame Conos’ decision recommending no bail for the pimp but provisional liberty for the priest.

“All along when I go to sleep Monday my gut feeling was that the priest would be denied bail. But when I woke up this morning I was surprised that it was the pimp who was denied bail,” Teodoro told reporters.

He explained that the prosecutor’s decision was based on the premise that the priest only “used” a trafficked person while it was the pimp who was trafficking the victim.

He said the prosecutors based their decisions on the strength of the documents forwarded them by the local police.

The victim’s mother, who acted as the complainant in the case, has reportedly received threats.

Teodoro said the pimp and the girl are in the custody of the city’s social welfare office.

Right after his arrest, Lagarejos was stripped of his post as parish priest of Saint John the Baptist church in Taytay, Rizal and as president of the Cainta Catholic College.

Quezada said they had no inkling that Lagarejos was a priest until he was questioned at the Marikina police headquarters.

Last Monday, police said the girl alleged that Lagarejos “used” her twice last June and she was paid P3,000 in their first “encounter.”

The Antipolo Diocese, to which Lagarejos belongs, said yesterday it is prepared to offer spiritual and psychological assistance to the alleged victim, “who, it is our understanding, has been in the keeping of traffickers in the past.” – With Evelyn Macairan