FATHER Shay Cullen, the Irish priest campaigning against child prostitution in the Philippines, will complain to a human rights commission about his treatment by local police.
He says he was beaten up handcuffed and held for six hours without medical attention last Wednesday night.
Father Cullen had been protesting against the laying of a high voltage power line beside the orphanage outside Otongapo, about 80 miles from the capital, Manila.
Last April he built a perch halfway up the 90 metre steel pylon. His protest, and the successful prosecution of paedophile tourists, have attracted widespread publicity.
During the incident, Father Cullen said, he was manhandled off the perch and handcuffed, with his hands behind his back.
He was thrown into a van by the police men who were out of uniform, and taken to the station where he was held for six hours. He was not seriously injured.
"They robbed us of our radios, cameras and a cellular phone. One of my senior staff had a gun cocked to his head, with live ammunition."
Father Cullen said there was a large number of witnesses and they were preparing statements.
Yesterday the Fianna Fail TD for Dublin South East, Mr Eoin Ryan, called on the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, to intervene on Father Cullen's behalf.
"His campaign for justice has disturbed a powerful and corrupt circle in the Philippines. International opinion is a powerful force in securing his continued safety."
Father Cullen said he received no medical treatment in custody. "No doctor in the city would give us a legal medical." The city was controlled by one powerful family.
"They are infuriated with our success in prosecuting paedophiles. We have just found and, arrested an American paedophile who is wanted for six charges of incest and child abuse in the United States."
Father Cullen said he had been successful in stopping the electricity project for three months.
He said he felt the routing of the electricity line, directly outsiders the orphanage of 30 children, was, "almost vindictive."
There were 16,000 prostitutes in the city, he said, and countless, numbers of children involved in the tourist trade. "We have 212, cases now.
Father Cullen said the protest would continue, and he would lodge a complaint with a human rights commission in Manila.
Asked whether he was concerned for his safety he said. "I certainly was last night because I thought they were were going to stage an accident. I was 40 feet up the pole, with my hands tied behind my back. They could have dropped me and said I was trying to escape.
