P200,000 bail set for pastor in ‘rape’

DAVAO CITY — The city prosecutor’s office has recommended P200,000 bail for the temporary liberty of a pastor accused of raping an 11-year-old girl.

Assistant city prosecutor Jofre Saniel found sufficient evidence to file rape charges against Jaime Villa Abrille, 51, pastor of the Pentecostal Holiness Church in Barangay Tibungco here.

Villa Abrille was arrested last April 28 after an 11-year old girl accused him of sexually abusing her.

The girl said she kept mum about the incident, which happened last December, because she respected the pastor.

But she finally decided to reveal everything to her mother last month after Villa Abrille allegedly again touched her private parts.

It was then that the pastor was discovered to have also allegedly abused the girl’s two younger sisters, aged nine and 10. A fourth girl eventually surfaced and similarly accused Villa Abrille of sexually abusing her. — Edith Regalado