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	Priest in Sex Scandal Urged to Surface GMA News [Philippines] April 18, 2007 http://www.gmanews.tv/story/38830/Priest-in-sex-scandal-urgeed-to-surface Now that he has been named and charged for supposedly sexually harassing students at a confession last year, Cebu-based Fr. Benedicto Ejares must now end his hiding and face the music. Sun-Star Cebu said the order came from no less than the Archdiocese of Cebu, which said Ejares must face the charges filed by the National Bureau of Investigation. The NBI Central Visayas regional office earlier filed seven counts of acts of lasciviousness against Ejares before the Cebu City Prosecutor last week for allegedly harassing high school students whose confession he heard during a Life in the Spirit Seminar in November last year. Archdiocese spokesman Msgr. Achilles Dakay said Ejares reads the local newspapers and should at least show himself to Cebu archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. "He must show himself to Cardinal Vidal so we will know what we can do," Dakay said, even as he advised Ejares to get a personal lawyer. But Vidal clarified this does not necessarily mean Ejares should show himself to the public, adding he cannot comment on the matter as he has not talked to Ejares. "From the very beginning (of the case), I advised Ejares not to show himself in public yet," Vidal said Tuesday, after the opening mass of the 15th Convention of the Canon Law Society of the Philippines. Vidal said that while he disallowed Ejares from officiating mass and confession in public, Ejares is still a priest, although he does not have an assignment. Ejares was previously assigned at the Sta. Lucia Parish in Asturias, Cebu from 1998 to 2002. Auxiliary Bishop Julito Cortes, Ejares' former supervisor, earlier said he is not the right person to know the whereabouts of Ejares but Cardinal Vidal. Vidal himself does not know where Ejares is. "I suppose he went abroad."
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