Priest had date with teen before alleged suicide? : ABS-CBN

MANILA, Philippines - Police in Camarines Sur province are investigating the death of a priest, who allegedly went on a date with a 15-year-old girl before he was found dead last Wednesday morning. Senior Superintendent Jonathan Ablang, Camarines Sur provincial police director, said the initial report he received was that Father Baltazar Acompañado Jr. died in his sleep and that that the priest may have committed suicide. "May hawak-hawak na baril sa kananang kamay si Father Acompañado at may gunshot wound sa ulo, kaya lumalabas nag suicide siya (Father Acompañado has a gunshot wound in the head and he was holding a gun with his right hand, which indicates that he committed suicide)," Ablang said. He, however, said that the suicide angle was not conclusive, based on the initial crime scene investigation by the Camarines Sur Police Provincial Office. Acompañado, director of the Holy Rosary Preparatory Seminary and Archdiocesan Vocation, was found dead inside his room at the seminary's compound in San Jose town last Wednesday morning (July 28). Mall date with 15-year-old girl Ablang said that as the San Jose Police Station probed deeper into Acompañado's death, its investigators discovered that the priest went out with a 15-year-old girl last Tuesday. He said police have arrested the girl's alleged pimp. In an interview with ABS-CBN Bicol, the woman denied she was a pimp. She said the priest approached her and asked her to look for a girl who could accompany him to a mall in Naga City. "HIndi naman ako bugaw. Nilapitan lang ako, pinakiusapan lang ako maghanap ng babae. Nasa bahay lang ako, tumutulong minsan sa sakahan (I'm not a pimp. The priest approached me and asked me to look for a girl for him. I'm usually at home and sometimes helps in the farm)," the woman claimed. She said that the 15-year-old girl immediately agreed when she asked her if she could accompany the priest to Naga City. "Sabi sa akin, oo, kasi kailangan niya ng pera (The girl agreed because she said she needed the money)," he added. The alleged pimp also told ABS-CBN News that the priest tipped her P500 for finding him a girl. The girl's parents refused to be interviewed. "Basta sa police na lang kayo magtanong. Kawawa naman ang anak ko, kinse anyos lang ganyan na ang nangyari (You should just ask the police. You should pity my daughter, she's only 15 and yet she already had this kind of experience)," the girl's mother said. The priest and the girl allegedly returned to San Jose town on Tuesday night. Good priest In a statement released by Archbishop Leonardo Legazpi on Thursday, he said that Acompañado was "a good and dedicated priest." Legazpi said Acompañado first served as parochial vicar of St. John the Evangelist Church in Naga City in 2003 and professor of the preparatory seminary before he was appointed rector. The archbishop announced that Acompañado's remains lie in state at the Good Sheperd Chapel at the Holy Rosary Major Seminary in Naga City. A concelebrated funeral Mass will be offered on Saturday at 2 p.m.. The priest's remains will be buried at the Resurrection Garden, the burial ground for priests in Caceres. (Kate Delovieres - ABS-CBN Bicol) Link: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/07/30/10/priest-had-date-teen-alleged-suicide

Youths drawn into online sexual exploitation in the Philippines

CEBU, Philippines – In a poor shanty in the Central Philippines city of Cebu, a tiny internet café offers broadband connectivity with the outside world. In a place that lacks running water, the opportunities presented by the existence of the internet are boundless.

But along with these opportunities are the inherent risks posed by the net. A growing number of youths in the Philippines are being drawn into a dangerous world of sexual exploitation by foreigners they meet online.

A way to earn money

At the age of 15, Angel began connecting with foreign men in chat rooms.

“I had many friends chatting online,” he said. “They told me ‘Angel, it’s really nice to chat with the foreign guys because you can earn money.’”

For several hours every day, Angel is online with men from North America and Europe. “They tell me that, ‘I will send you money if you show me your body, your naked body,’ and yes I will show it, and they will send me money.”

The world he and his friends inhabit is the seedy collection of internet cafes, some of them with private cubicles, where teenagers can ‘perform’ on web-cams for foreign customers. Close by the new internet cafes that have been springing up in local cities, are the offices of remittance companies, where the teenagers can be paid instantly by their overseas clients.

A childhood lost

“I support my mother together with my sister and her kids, and my grandmother,” said Angel’s friend, Katrina, who has found himself the family’s bread winner at age 17. Like his friends, he earns up to 200 dollars per month.

These children may suffer from long-term psychological harm, in addition to missing the chance for an education. In order to surf online when European and American men are online, they need to be in the internet cafes while other children of school age are asleep.

At the Florencio Urot National High School in Cebu, teacher Loreto Roca, has seen a number of his pupils drop out of class. “They lose interest in their studies,” he said. “They can’t focus anymore. Eventually, they drop out of school.”

Socially responsible cafes

Recognising the harm being inflicted on so many teenagers, UNICEF is supporting initiatives around the Philippines to deal with the problem. A number of internet cafés have agreed to remove their private booths after one of these initiatives put pressure on them to do so.

UNICEF is also promoting a charter which lays down a code of conduct for internet cafes to follow to make them safer for children.

Mickey Tiangco runs one such internet café on the outskirts of Manila.

“Children have to be careful in meeting with strangers they meet in chat rooms,” he warned. “And for us, the shops, we have to be socially responsible.”

In his café, no children are allowed in at night, and signs are everywhere warning about the dangers for unsuspecting youngsters.

Back in Cebu, and hundreds of other cities like it, teenagers who make a living by chatting and performing on-line for foreign men know all about those risks. “Sometimes they come to the Philippines but I am afraid to meet up with them,” said Freda, age 16. “Because usually all they want to do is have sex.” (Rob McBride)

Grand Pa WHo Had Sex With Young Girl Dies From Heart Attack

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 25, 2008) – A grand father, who had sex with a young woman, suffered a heart attack and died later at a hospital in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines, reports said Thursday.

Reports said doctors failed to save Manolo Pescadero, 70, after he was rushed to the hospital late Wednesday. It said the septuagenarian had a heart attack while having sex with the woman at a motel.

The woman said Pescadero was her “text mate.” (Mindanao Examiner)