MANILA —
A Philippine official says the government is preparing to extradite to the United States a Filipino Catholic priest who is facing charges of sexually molesting two boys in two North Dakota churches in the 1990s.
Philippine Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras told The Associated Press Wednesday that Fernando Laude Sayasaya was arrested over the weekend in Calamba city south of Manila and would be flown back to the U.S., which sought his extradition under a treaty.
Paras says the priest has been charged in a North Dakota court over the alleged sexual advances on two underage siblings from 1995 to 1998, including by separately touching them, in North Dakota. Sayasaya flew back to the Philippines for Christmas in 1998 and never returned.
