It is concerning that there is this news item about our immigration authorities preparing to report an American pastor accused of abusing many children in Pampanga.
Justice Secretary Boying Remulla calls the process a case buildup. This is because he wanted all cases filed by the prosecutor to stand in court, to achieve victory. Which is just the proper way of doing it.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is building a deportation case against an American pastor accused of physically abusing more than 160 children under his care in Pampanga.
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado confirmed that American national Jeremy K. Ferguson, 48, who allegedly ran a religious organization in Mexico town, Pampanga, is now facing legal action for the abuse of minors—acts that authorities described as cruel, systematic, and inhumane.
Viado is implementing his agency’s #ShieldKids program, the serious effort of this administration to safeguard Filipinos who belong to the vulnerable sectors, like Filipino children.
It is a fact that foreign predators are everywhere. And since Metro Manila and Calabarzon are two of the most populous areas in the country, it should be a no-brainer that they are looking for prey here.
A day or two after the Pampanga pastor’s case hit the headlines, the immigration agents arrested another American guy who is wanted for child sex offenses in the United States. What is he doing in Manila?
BI Fugitive Search Unit chief Rendel Ryan Sy said James Russel Munson, 67, was apprehended Wednesday along Roxas Boulevard in Ermita.
According to the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime and US authorities, Munson was convicted as a child sex offender. Sy noted that Philippine immigration laws prohibit entry of foreigners convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude, including registered sex offenders.
Again, the arrest of Munson is part of BI’s Project #Shieldkids, a campaign targeting sexual predators and foreign nationals who pose risks to public safety and children’s welfare.
In the case of Ferguson in Pampanga, the police and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) established the details of shocking accounts from victims.
Children said they were beaten, starved, chained, and locked in rooms by Ferguson, who was arrested on August 13 by the Field Office III and Pampanga police operatives.
Viado condemned the abuse, saying Ferguson’s actions represent “a kind of depravity that has no place in our country.”
“We will make sure this individual is expelled from the Philippines after facing his cases here, so he may never prey on our children again,” Viado said.
These strong words are not enough. The government must launch a campaign to remind parents to take good care of their children, especially teenage girls and boys who, because of poverty, peer pressure, and society’s systemic corruption, are turning to drugs and immoral activities.
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