Thursday, November 03, 2005
Pregnant 18-year-old accuses neighbor of rape
“He threatened to cut off my tongue if I scream.”
This was what an 18-year-old girl told government psychologists and police investigators after a neighbor allegedly raped her twice in Barangay Bugho, Moalboal, Cebu.
Lenny, whom psychologists have diagnosed as mentally impaired, is 12 weeks pregnant.
Elisio Asma Celestial, the 27-year-old respondent, remains at large.
Lenny, escorted by police officers from the Moalboal PNP Station, filed rape and child abuse charges against Celestial before the Office of the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor last Oct. 28.
If he is charged in court and found guilty, Celestial will be meted the death penalty, according to the provisions of the Revised Penal Code and the Special Child Protection and Welfare Act.
The victim’s mother said the first incident happened inside the home of the victim’s aunt, their neighbor. She said she had left Lenny at her aunt’s that day.
The victim was left alone for a few minutes and the respondent, who was familiar to both Lenny and her aunt, drew her out and raped her.
Dragged
In the second incident, she said, the respondent dragged the victim to a secluded area where she was again raped.
“It was only on Sept. 17, 2005 that (Lenny) confessed to me about the foregoing incident and on that date, I suspected her of being pregnant due to her lethargic and sluggish behavior. She was frequently sleeping and was always in a melancholic state,” she said in Cebuano.
The respondent remained in Moalboal after the incident, the victim’s mother said. But upon hearing that a complaint had been lodged against him first before the police, he disappeared.
The filing of the charges against Celestial came days after six people were charged for the rape of a three-year-old girl in Minglanilla, Cebu.
Police Insp. Carlos Reyes of the Minglanilla police charged Lydon “Paghid” Powao Aventajado, Archibal “Archie” Tabuena Cañete, Emmanuel Caballero Sepayla, Serge Rio “Puloy” Lao Mantalaba, Ramil “Rabal” Aliño Laspuña, and Placido “Flash” Geraldez Taña. They are residents of Ward 1 in Poblacion, Minglanilla, Cebu.
After the rape, the suspects bashed the girl’s head with a rock and left her for dead.
The suspects snatched the girl was from her father’s tricycle while it was parked near the Minglanilla Public Market at 7 p.m. last Oct. 8. Her parents had left her for a while.
After seeking the police’s help, the girl’s parents only saw her again the next morning. (KNR)
(November 3, 2005 issue)
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