By APD writer Melo M. Acuna

MANILA, Feb,19 (APD) – Two months after he was arrested by the Bureau of Immigration elements in Biliran Province, American Rev. Fr. Kenneth Pius Hendricks, was served five warrants of arrest by National Capital Region Police Office Director Guillermo Lorenzo T. Eleazar.

It will be recalled Fr. Hendricks was ordered arrested by US Magistrate Justice Stephanie Bowman of the US District Court for the District of Ohio issued last November 11,2018. He was charged for “engaging in illicit sex with a minor in a foreign country,” punishable by fines and up to 30 years in prison.

The warrants of arrest came from the Eight Judicial Region, RTC Branch 16, Naval, Biliran and signed by Judge Constantino F. Esber for alleged Acts of Lasciviousness and Child Abuse.

The warrants were served by Police Director Eleazar, with elements from the Bureau of Immigration and US Department of Homeland Security in attendance.

According to available information the priest allegedly molested more than 50 people, mostly altar boys as young as seven years old. The new complainants were encouraged to come out upon learning of the suspect’s recent arrest.

He arrived in the Philippines from Cincinnati, Ohio in 1968 and was ordained and worked at the St. Isidore, the Worker Chapel in Talustosan, Biliran Province.

The priest is presently detained at the RSOU detention cell and the five warrants will be returned to the court of origin.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)