Home 
The male American arrested in a company of a 12-year-old girl denied having intimate relations with her while on vacation in a resort in Sta. Fe town on Bantayan Island last week.
?I'm not here to spend a romantic time with a young girl,? Preston Jay Kuntz said.
Kuntz, 41, said he was a ?friend? of the girl?s family who was supposed to join in the vacation. But they could not come at the last minute.
?This vacation was not intended to solely be with a minor. It was supposed to be a big trip,? said Kuntz, who was detained at the municipal jail in Sta. Fe pending filing of charges for violation of the law protecting children and women.
Kuntz was arrested on Friday night after police and social workers were alerted by the owner of Hoyohoy Beach Resort that an American guest was in a company of a girl.
The girl, a sampaguita vendor in Cebu City, was taken into custody by the town?s social welfare office.
The Sta. Fe medical officer later found the girl to have vaginal laceration.
Kuntz said he was ?not into young girls? and had no sexual relations with the girl.
He claimed that since they arrived on the island on Tuesday, they slept separately at their ?villa? in the resort, he in the bed and she in the couch.
Kuntz also lamented that when he was arrested he was not informed of his rights and was not given a lawyer when the police arrested him on Friday.
?Nobody read me my rights, they took me here (Sta. Fe municipal jail). They are nice to me but nobody told me about (having) a lawyer,? he said.
He said was able to find a lawyer, Steven Olagay, by surfing the Internet. ?He is supposed to be from Bantayan.?
The girl?s parents, contacted by the police at their home in Sambag Dos, refused to file charges against Kuntz.
A 17-year old sister of the girl, who went to Bantayan with their mother and some of her seven siblings yesterday, said there was no sexual abuse as the American was a friend of their family. The 12-year-old is one of nine siblings.
Provincial Board member Agnes Magpale, chair of the PB?s committee on women, children and family affairs, however urged the Sta. Fe police to also file charges against the girl?s parents for allowing their daughter to be in the company of an adult American.
Parents, she said, should be responsible for the safety and well being of their children, citing Article 40 of the Children's Code of Cebu Province which states that ?parents, guardians and those trusted to take care of children? have the responsibility to protect their children against sexual abuses.
Senior Insp. Rolando Evalle, Sta. Fe?s police chief, said Kuntz would be charged with violations of Republic Act 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act that prohibits an unrelated adult from keeping in his company a minor 12 years or under, in public and private places, including beach resorts.
Kuntz said he had been a friend of the girl?s family and her parents allowed him to bing her to Bantayan because other members of the family were supposed to join them at Hoyohoy Resort a day after they arrived.
?But somehow they were not able to make it,? he said.
?The original plan was for me to get multiple villas. If the villa I was staying in became too crowded, I planned to rent another (villa),? he added.
Kuntz said he met the girl?s mother in October 2008 while having coffee at a fastfood restaurant near a downtown hotel.
After he returned to the United States, he said they kept in touch through ?occasional e-mails, texts (message).?
He said he returned to Cebu last February and again early this month.
?(When) I came back, we saw each other again. We would have karaoke, eat together,? he added.
Kuntz said he helped the family, particularly with the schooling of the children.
?They did not ask for money. I gave them money,? he said.
?I am used to giving to people, I donate. I earn a decent amount of money. The kids can have new shoes with as low as P50. That's nothing for me,? he added.
Kuntz, a freelance post-production supervisor, applied for a job at a Cebu-based film making company.
?But with what happened, I don't think that is will push through now,? he said.
The California resident is divorced from his first wife.
He comes from a ?broken? family from the state of Iowa, he said.
?My mother died of alcoholism at the age of 52. My father is a functional alcoholic. He was married and has been divorced five times,? said Kuntz.
He said he has two brothers in the US but refused to give further details.
Kuntz said he wanted to help the mother of the girl because she was ?in a bad situation.?
?I've been to their house. They live in a horrible place. They only have electricity from four in the afternoon. I wanted to give them solar panels so they would have electricity,? he added.
Kuntz, who claimed to be also a businessman and an inventor, said he had wanted to start a company in Cebu that would visit squatters, impoverished families.
He also planned to move in Cebu within the year and set up a solar panel business.
He said the ?simple living? in Cebu inspired him to return and hoped to live in permanently.
?I am a tourist with the intention to live here (Cebu),? he told .
?I grew up in a farm with no real structure of a family. What I like about Filipinos is that the people are always happy. It is also the simplicity here. I am impressed with Filipinos, they have very little and still they are so happy,? he added.
Kuntz said he first came to Cebu a couple of years ago to see a he met through a matchmaking facility.
?There was this matchmaking thing. But it didn't work out (with her),? he said.
?She was 25 years old. My first wife was 25 years old and I was 33 at that time (we got married),? he added.
Kuntz got emotional as he expressed fear that he would not get a fair hearing in the complaint lodge against him, especially after he learned that Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia got interested in his case and wanted him prosecuted.
?There seems to be some politics involved. I'm afraid that I'll be railroaded into this situation and nobody is helping me,? he said.
Garcia told CEBU DAILY NEWS in a phone interview that aside from violating the anti-child abuse law, Kuntz could have also violated provisions of the Cebu Provincial Children's Code and had directed the Provincial Social Welfare Office to look into the matter immediately.
?I commend the police for having apprehended the American national who has violated some provisions of the Children's Code of the province,? she said.
Alfamina Saagundo, the case social welfare based in Sta. Fe, said the girl would be brought to Cebu City today and turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development regional office.
?We do not have a center for women and children so the child has to be brought to the regional office,? she said.
?We already referred the case to the Children's Legal Bureau,? she added.
Saagundo said this is the first case this year for the town.
?We have conducted orientation seminars on laws on the protection of women and child in beach resorts,? she said.
She added that resort owners were told to call up the local social welfare office if they notice any violations of these laws.
Board Member Magpale said filing charges against Kuntz and the girl?s parents would be an ?opportunity for Sta. Fe police to redeem themselves.?
Sta. Fe town was earlier embroiled in a controversy after an angry Garcia filed charges against the owner of one of the town?s resorts for allowing the staging of a bikini show on Black Saturday.
The Manila-based models and starlets who performed in the show were also charged for indecency and violation of the Province's Code of Women. /With reports from Ador Vincent Mayol and Doris Bongcac
