Friday, October 19, 2007 Vendor surfaces, to file raps vs suspects By Joey Nacalaban
NEW charges will soon be filed by a 35-year-old sidewalk vendor against the two suspects responsible for the series of killings at Fil-Estate Subdivision.
Roxanne (not her real name), in between sobs, positively identified Gabriel Pagalan and Michael Pelarion as the men who killed her companion Dominique Reyes, a security guard assigned at Ruby Appliance Center, and then sexually abused her. She spared the third arrested suspect named Renato Dahang.
Roxanne recounted to SPO4 Salome Catulong-Sink how the suspects took turns raping her at gunpoint after stabbing to death Reyes at the grassy portion of Macapagal drive in Pueblo, Upper Carmen in the night of July 15, this year.
The allegations, however, were repeatedly denied by the suspects even in the first day of their arrest in front of SPO1 Mario Pelaez, Anti-Theft and Robbery Section (ATRS) chief, and Acting City Police Director Antonio Montalba.
The suspects said they are only responsible for the murder of barangay kagawad Jake Carso of Barangay 37, PO2 Alvin Cobrado, and Rexford Valmoria a few months ago.
Carso and Cobrado were robbed and then killed while at the vacant lot of Fil-Estate subdivision in Barangay Gusa. Valmoria was shot several times while at Macapagal drive in Upper Carmen during a robbery-hold up.
Roxanne said prior to the incident, she and Reyes were talking under a tree when the suspects appeared from behind carrying handguns. They declared a hold-up.
One of them struck Reyes on the head with a hard object. Pagalan, Roxanne said, ordered Reyes to take off his clothes.
She claimed Pelarion brought her to a nearby spot and raped her after which she saw Pagalan carrying a knife with blood on it. She alleged that Pagalan also raped her.
She said she ran away from her attackers and proceeded to the police sub-station, which is just 200 meters away from the crime scene.
She said the police station was empty and she waited for almost an hour for the duty police officer to come. When the police officer arrived she was then accompanied to the area where the crime committed.
However, the victim said the police officer asked her to file the charges the next day, adding that the suspects might still be around and he was the only one left at the precinct.
The following day, Roxanne said she did not care anymore to return to the police headquarters thinking that Reyes was still alive.
Two days later on July 17, residents in the area were shocked to see a body in a secluded area. The decomposing corpse was later identified as that of Reyes. The victim sustained a stab wound in the body.
During an ocular inspection conducted by SPO4 Sink at the crime scene together with Roxanne, she found a T-shirt and underwear at the same area where the guard and Roxanne were supposedly seated. Roxanne identified the already worn items as owned by Reyes.
It was learned that Scene of the Crime Operation members were in the area upon receiving report that a dead body was spotted. Sink said she will file charges of murder and rape against the suspects.
