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	Priest Named, Charged in Sex Scam in Cebu GMA News [Philippines] April 12, 2007 http://www.gmanews.tv/story/37980/Priest-named-charged-in-sex-scam-in-Cebu Almost five months after the incident, the National Bureau of Investigation finally charged a priest accused of sexually harassing high school students during a Life in the Spirit seminar in Cebu City. Sun-Star Cebu reported Thursday that the NBI sought charges against Fr. Benedicto Ejares before the city prosecutor's office Wednesday afternoon. The NBI recommended that Ejares be charged with seven counts of acts of lasciviousness in relation to the anti-child abuse law, and a separate complaint for sexual harassment. In filing the complaint, NBI regional chief lawyer Medardo de Lemos finally revealed the identity of the priest, whom investigators said failed to answer repeated subpoenas. Special Investigator Jed Hife said she waited as long as she could for Ejares to answer the subpoenas, the last of which was sent last Feb. 23. She said the priest never showed up. But the NBI now faces another problem, as even the Cebu archdiocese does not know where he is. "There is no need to explain. I do not know where he is. Whatever the NBI charged him with, what can we do?" archdiocese spokesman Msgr. Achilles Dakay said. In his letter to city prosecutor Nicolas Sellon, de Lemos cited testimonies from several female third-year high school students, all minors. The students testified that Ejares, who heard their confessions during the seminar, "inappropriately touched them in different parts of their body, demeaning their intrinsic worth and dignity as a human being." Attached to the complaint were the affidavits Hife gathered from seven of the high school students the Catholic priest allegedly treated lasciviously. NBI investigation showed the victims were taking turns as penitents before Ejares who, together with some other priests, was hearing confession as part of a Life in the Spirit seminar held at the Abellana National High School last Nov. 14. The incident prompted the Department of Social Welfare and Development 7 to conduct an inquiry. The NBI later took over the investigation. According to one student, she saw Ejares place his hands on the shoulders of the penitent ahead of her, then "toyed" with a strap of the penitent's bra. When it was her turn as penitent, Ejares did the same thing and even pinched and tickled her forearm. Ejares allegedly likewise asked if she had a boyfriend and, when she answered yes, whether she already had some "experience." "Because of what Ejares did, she hurriedly ran away from the grandstand (where the confession was heard) and cried because she felt abused," de Lemos said in his letter. Another student said Ejares toyed with the straps of her bra and "kept on touching it." Another girl recalled that the priest told her that she was so beautiful and she will surely be married some day. Yet another narrated how the priest tried to pull her closer towards him and said that she was as beautiful as her mother. Another alleged that the priest groped her further than where her bra straps could be felt beneath her blouse and "moved to her shoulder, down to her forearm and pinched and tickled it." While she was still enumerating her sins, the priest allegedly told her that she will grow more beautiful after confession. "Clearly, the actions displayed and some words uttered by Ejares in receiving the confession of the minor female students were deeds and words, which debase, degrade or demean the intrinsic worth and dignity of a child as a human being," de Lemos said. - GMANews.TV
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