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Saturday, December 13, 2003
Ex-cop among 6 sex suspects
CEBU -- One of the six suspects in the kidnapping and rape of a 19-year-old fast-food outlet attendant admitted that he used to be a policeman, but was dismissed in 1998 for his absences without official leave (Awol).
But Rodrigo Jacalan, 36, and two other male suspects, insisted that they had nothing to do with the kidnapping and rape of Teresa (real name withheld) last Saturday night.
He said he and his two friends were just implicated by Marneli Darjuan, who they described as a lesbian and a drug addict, to hide the real suspects.
Jacalan, married with one child, served as Cebu City policeman starting in 1987 until he was dismissed 11 years later for Awol violations. He held a rank of police officer 3.
Darjuan, for her part, said she only told the police that Jacalan and two other companions might have knowledge about the incident because they all live in Lorega San Miguel, Cebu City, where Teresa was raped.
Jacalan, 36, Christopher Ramos, 23, Eric Publico, 24, insisted that they were in their houses in Lorega when Teresa was allegedly gang-raped and robbed of her P2,500.
Two other suspects, Roel Mangyao and one Butsoy, remained at large as of Friday.
A complaint for kidnapping with robbery and multiple rape has been filed against them.
The police are confident they have a strong case because the victim identified the suspects during a police lineup last Monday.
The suspects allegedly raped Teresa while they were high on drugs.
However, only Darjuan and Ramos admitted, in separate interviews, that they used drugs.
Jacalan and Publico also blamed Ramos for their arrest, saying it was Ramos who named them.
But Ramos explained that he only gave out their names after police asked him who his visitors were that day.
"I just told them that Jacalan and Publico were among those who went to my house, but I did not say that they were the ones who raped the girl because it never happened. I have not seen that girl before," Ramos said.
Ramos said police picked him up in Sitio Lumar, Barangay T. Padilla because the rape allegedly happened in his house.
The three men are now in the Pari-an Police Station, while Darjuan is detained in the Cebu City Police Office stockade.
Darjuan narrated that she first met Teresa last July when Teresa told her she ran away from home. She brought Teresa to her rented house in Mandaue City and they spent the night there.
The following day, Teresa asked her to pawn her cellular phone. Darjuan went to Lorega to pawn it, but the one she asked to do it for her did not give the money.
This led to a fight with Teresa and since then, Darjuan did not see Teresa again. She said she could not even explain why Teresa implicated her.
Teresa had told the attending doctor at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center that she was forcibly taken to Lorega by the suspects last Saturday night.
She was waiting for a jeepney ride home outside the fast-food outlet she worked for in Mandaue City when Darjuan and five men forced her into a white car. MBG/CPL of Superbalita
(December 13, 2003 issue)
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