Priest charged with corruption

Television personality Fr. Larry Faraon has denied any wrongdoing after he was stripped of all his functions on charges of corruption.

Faraon was also grounded. He was prohibited from going out at night or staying overnight outside his residence without permission from his "local superiors."

The priest accused the office of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin of deliberately spreading the accusations against him.

Faraon, of the Dominican religious order, was accused by his personnel at the Lord’s Flock Charismatic Group of embezzling thousands of pesos of their fund.

Reports said the Dominican Order proposed that Faraon immediately relinquish all his positions in the charismatic group, including "provincial promoter" of media evangelization, as well as head of the New Covenant Community which he founded.

Faraon, who was program manager of Radio Veritas at the time of the 1986 EDSA people power revolt, was also ordered to take leave of all his radio, television and newspaper vocations. Faraon is a columnist of the Daily Tribune.

An accounting has been requested on all his finances, scholarship and fund-raising activities.

Faraon expressed surprise over the sanctions since he claimed that he had already been "cleared" of the charges against him. He also expressed dismay that the incident has already reached the press.

The STAR tried to reach Faraon through his cellphone but he would not answer it.

In earlier interviews, Faraon said he suspected that somebody from the Archbishop’s Palace was trying to destroy his reputation, since Sin’s office was the only other office furnished a copy of the documents in the case.

The Dominican Order’s prior provincial Fr. Ernesto Arceo reportedly handed down the sanctions.

Faraon said he will send a letter to the cardinal inquiring about the spreading controversy.