|
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
CHR goes after rape ‘witness’
After a fact-finding mission that brought them to the scene of the crime, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) filed a criminal complaint against Ronnie Tabora for the Sept. 6, 2005 rape and murder of Maylen Laputan.
Tabora, 22, almost escaped prosecution when he surfaced and convinced the police in Carcar, Cebu that it was Maylen’s father and uncle—Maximo and Con-cordio Laputan—who raped the 13-year-old girl after a drinking binge.
But CHR 7 Director Alejandro Alonso Jr. said that Tabora, in an eight-page sworn statement, admitted to the rape and murder during an interview with CHR investigators last Oct. 28, 2005.
There was a grisly addendum—Concordio allegedly cut off flesh from the child’s breast and arms after the murder and cooked it into a stew with cabbage.
However, Tabora narrated, Concordio threw the stuff away instead of eating it.
Tabora’s lawyer, Francisco Amit Jr., was present during the interview conducted by CHR investigators Eddie Guerra and Alfonso Bayocot Jr.
Lamp
Tabora, in his statement, did not take back his previous allegation that Maximo and Concordio raped the girl.
Earlier, he said he only held the lamp for the two. But later he admitted that he also took part in the rape.
“We will resolve this complaint and see if there is basis to amend the original complaint (that only impleads Maximo and Concordio) that is under reinvestigation,” Provincial Prosecutor Jane Petralba said.
Aside from Tabora’s sworn statement, the CHR also submitted the affidavits of four other people and an olive drab knapsack that contained two shirts with stains, an ice pick and a wallet with Tabora’s photos and pieces of tin foil.
However, the girl’s mother and other relatives are still convinced that the father and uncle have nothing to do with the crime.
The allegations, they said, are too far-fetched to be true.
Maylen was found dead in a cornfield in Sitio Kamangkamang, Barangay Ocaña, Carcar, Cebu, last Sept. 8. She’d been missing for two days when her mutilated body was found.
Walk-in
The police charged her father and uncle with parricide four days after, chiefly on the basis of a walk-in witness: Tabora.
In his first sworn statement, Tabora said the Laputan brothers, his cousins, snatched, stabbed and raped Maylen on the night of her disappearance.
Maximo and Concordio have denied this. Maximo and his wife even tagged Tabora as the one who raped and killed their daughter.
In his testimony then, Tabora said he was acting as caretaker of Concordio’s house and stayed there the whole day of Sept. 6.
Heavy drinking
That night, despite the rain, Maximo and Con-cordio, after a bout of heavy drinking, asked him to accompany them outside the house where they met Maylen on the way.
Maximo grabbed his daughter. She cried for help, but her father allegedly covered her mouth.
Tabora said he saw Concordio stab Maylen and help Maximo carry the girl to the cornfield where they took turns raping her.
Tabora was told to stay where he was. But since he was carrying a lamp, he said he clearly saw what was happening.
Tabora said he was told not to say anything or they would kill him.
But the girl’s mother, Diomedes Laputan, found Tabora’s allegations suspicious and asked help from the National Bureau of Investigation, the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) and the CHR.
The PAO, through Assistant Public Attorney Elsa Porio, asked the Regional Trial Court to order a reinvestigation. (KNR)
(November 8, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
