A Franciscan priest, Father Kenneth Hendricks, was arrested by operatives of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) over the molestation of at least 50 people, mostly altar boys as young as seven years old, while he was doing missionary work in the Philippines.
NCRPO chief, Police Dir. Guillermo Eleazar, personally served the five arrest warrants against Hendricks on Tuesday at the Bureau of Immigration Detention Cell in Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City, where the priest has been detained since his arrest last Dec. 5, 2018.
Eleazar said warrants were issued by Judge Constantino Esber of the Biliran Regional Trial Court over charges of acts of lasciviousness and child abuse.
He said the implementation of the warrants of arrest was a joint effort of the Regional Special Operations Unit -NCRPO, the BI Fugitive Search Unit and the US Department of Homeland Security.
“Available information reveals that the Franciscan priest has molested more than 50 people, mostly altar boys. They were afraid to come out in the open immediately because of grave threats from the priest,” Eleazar said.
Hendricks was arrested on December 5 by virtue of an arrest warrant issued by Stephanie Bowman, US magistrate judge of the US District Court for the District of Ohio, on November 11, on charges of “engaging in illicit sex with a minor in a foreign country, punishable by fines and/or up to 30 years in prison”.
Hendricks arrived in the Philippines from Cincinnati, Ohio, USA in 1968 and was ordained as a priest in the Franciscan Order and practiced his vocation at the St. Isidore the Worker Chapel in Talustosan Village in Biliran province.
