A 17-year-old-boy has filed a complaint of rape with the provincial prosecutors office against a Catholic priest in the Philippines' Naga City.
Even as the prosecutors office of Camarines Sur has yet to act on the accusations of the boy against Monsignor Peter Beri?a, the Archdiocese of Caceres issued a statement strongly denying the allegation.
In the statement released last week, Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legaspi even warned that the Archdiocese of Caceres was prepared to take appropriate legal action against the people behind these defamatory accusations."
The parents of the boy, aided by the police, initiated the complaint.
Senior Insp. Santiago Orozco, police chief of Camaligan, Camarines Sur, neighboring town of Naga City, said it took investigators five days to discover the identity of the accused, traced through the plate number of the alleged car used.
Orozco said that on Nov. 1, the boy reported to the Camaligan Municipal Police Office that he escaped from a man who segxwally molested him in a boarding house in that town.
He said the alleged rape victim was able to write down the plate number of an Innova car, which was later traced to the name of the accused priest.
Orozco said they also searched the social networking site Facebook and matched the name of the owner of the Innova car to the photo that was posted online. The boy identified the man in the Facebook photo as his molester.
PO2 Sonia Z. Florece, investigator of the women and children's desk, said the boy told investigators that he was asked by the man with the Innova car to help him bring a sack of rice somewhere.
The boy narrated to the police that he boarded the Innova car and was brought to an elementary school in Naga City. The man then drove the boy back to Camaligan town but stopped at a place which the boy erroneously identified as a boarding house."
Florece said the boarding house turned out to be a drive-in motel.
The boy had claimed he was able to escape when the priest went to the bathroom.
Florece said the boy said he was helped by room boys of the motel hide from the accused priest, who then left.
The boy also said he wrote down the plate number of the Innova car when the accused priest hastily drove out of the motel.
Defending the priest, Archbishop Legaspi said it was not Beri?a who was using the Innova car at that time but the priest's driver who used the car without the knowledge and permission of the monsignor and entered a local motel with a female companion on the date and time of the alleged incident."
Attempts to destroy and discredit the Church have been made by some sectors and individuals. The Church is currently looking into the possibility of some malicious ploy against the Church and its priests," the prelate said.
We are saddened by the fact that this false and malicious accusation is being made at the time when our priests are having their annual clergy retreat. Thus, we beg for prayers, especially at this time," Legaspi said.
Provincial Prosecutor Agapito Rosales said the rape rap against the priest had yet to be raffled among the prosecutors and the suspect would be given a chance to answer the charges against him.
Rosales said the case would follow due process before it is decided whether or not there was probable cause against the priest.
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