Adultery case filed vs Pampanga priest junked

ANGELES CITY—Citing lack of evidence, the city prosecutor here dismissed an adultery case against a Catholic priest which Church leaders in Pampanga said was the first in the province.

The complainant, husband of the priest’s alleged partner, has not filed a motion for reconsideration or taken any other legal action more than a month since Prosecutor Oliver Garcia resolved the case in February, a check by the Inquirer showed. The case was filed in October last year. According to Fr. Larry Sarmiento, head of the archdiocesan arbitration council, said it was the first adultery case filed against a priest in Pampanga.

“I have left it all to God. But I’m praying that I shall continue to have custody of my son,” said the complainant when reached by phone yesterday. He asked not to be named to protect the boy’s identity.

George Logronio, lawyer of Fr. Jeffrey Louie Maghirang and the woman, said the complainant failed to prove that the Skype account that supposedly recorded the conversation of Maghirang and the woman belonged to the priest.

“He failed to establish such fact,” Logronio said.

The complainant said it was a video recording of the conversation of the supposed lovers. “They talked of their sexual activities there,” he said, adding that he showed this to the superiors of the priest.

But Garcia said evidence for sexual intercourse, an element of adultery, was absent.

The third ground for the dismissal of the complaint was due to the issue of jurisdiction. The complainant, it turned out, did not specify where the act was done.

San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto suspended Maghirang and confined him to a retirement house for priests, an Inquirer source said. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon