Advocates petition Senator Rob Portman (September 3)

On September 3, 2019, the following letter was sent to the Cleveland office of Senator Rob Portman.

September 3, 2019

To the Honorable Senator Portman

Subj: Request for federal intervention to protect Philippine orphanage abuse victims

Dear Senator Portman,

We are writing to you as both your constituents and as advocates against sexual abuse and human trafficking. We are heartened that you have been a champion of legislation to end human trafficking and to help sexual abuse survivors. We are specifically asking you to review the recent press coverage12 surrounding Tom Randall’s coverup of sexual abuse at the orphanage that he funded (Sankey Samaritan Orphanage, Lucena City, Philippines) from 2000-2014. Christ Community Chapel, which was Tom’s employer from 2013-2019, recently conducted an internal review by a member that concluded that the abuse of multiple orphans by the Sankey orphanage director (Perfecto Luchavez) and his son (Jake Luchavez) likely occurred. The review also states that Christ Community Chapel funded the bail and legal defense of Perfecto and Jake Luchavez. Furthermore, we believe that Pastor Joe Coffey’s communication with you around Jan 15, 2014 to advocate for Tom’s health resulted in a chain of events after your communication with the Philippine ambassador to the US that led to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) prematurely terminating their investigation into credible abuse allegations at the Sankey Samaritan Orphanage.

We fully believe that you had only good intentions in choosing to intervene, and that you had no intentions of disrupting the NBI investigation. Nevertheless, we believe that Tom Randall intentionally deceived many individuals in regard to the abuse perpetrated upon the orphans and that he arranged for the funding of the bail, legal defense, and general living expenses of Perfecto Luchavez. We believe that this financial support, which resulted in the prohibited private inurement of funds governed by Internal Revenue Code Sec. 501c3, directly resulted in the victims giving up on the Philippines justice system in late 2016 when they stopped showing up to court after realizing that they would have to attend years of court proceedings before anyone would see jail time. This then resulted in charges being dismissed against Perfecto Luchavez, who continues to intimidate the victims into staying silent.

We are petitioning you to request:

  • That the appropriate federal agency open an investigation into Tom Randall, who we believe, after blatantly violating U.S. Tax law in the course of operating World Harvest Ministries, proposes to form a new 501c3 in order to continue soliciting donations3 for the unlawful purposes of sending money to the Philippines through Perfecto Luchavez to induce the Sankey abuse victims into silence.

  • That the appropriate federal agency contact the NBI in order to request that they reopen their investigation into the allegations of abuse that occurred at the Sankey Samaritan Orphanage from its founding up until its closure in 2014.

Please let us know if you would be willing to arrange for these two requests.

Sincerely,

The Justice for Sankey Advocates

  1. Allard, Sam, “A Hudson Megachurch, a Beloved Pastor and the International Sex Abuse Scandal They’ve Tried To Hide,” Cleveland Scene, July 31, 2019. [return]
  2. Garrett, Amanda, “Time and truth: Hudson church releases report on orphanage abuse claims,” Akron Beacon Journal, August 4, 2019. [return]
  3. Tom and Karren Randall Mailchimp letter dated August 20, 2019 and emailed to registered supporters on August 19, 2019. [return]