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Saturday, September 04, 2004
Barangay chief's son tied to sex raps
By Jovy S. Taghoy and Karlon N. Rama
With Rene H. Martel
CEBU CITY -- A complaint for rape and child abuse was filed Friday against six men who allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl at least twice.
Barangay Captain Felicisimo Rupinta of Ermita, Cebu City defended his 16-year-old son, after reports reached the police that the boy was one of the assailants.
"Wala man nag-ingon nga apil ang akong anak (The complainant never said my son attacked her)," Rupinta said. The girl, he added, merely said she saw the captain's son when the light was turned on after she was assaulted.
"We are now verifying those reports," said Supt. Pablo Labra II, chief of the Cebu City Police Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau (CIIB).
Labra told Sun.Star that relatives of Nina (real name withheld, as she is a minor) mentioned Rupinta's son, also a minor, as one of the perpetrators.
The girl's mother said that Nina mentioned the young Rupinta too, but clammed up when asked if he was among those who raped her.
All at large
Only five of the six persons were actually identified in the complaint prepared by the Cebu City Police Office's Women's Desk and the CIIB.
All are at large.
Nina, in her complaint, accused Mezael, Michael, Carlo and Lando, all surnamed Palermo, together with one Aldin Cabinte and a certain Tata of taking turns in raping her on Aug. 22 and again on Aug. 26.
The complaint did not say whether the Palermos are related.
During the second attack, she said, one of the accused even took a camera-enabled cellular phone and took digital photos of her private parts.
Nina, in her sworn statement, said she was introduced to Mezael Palermo by a friend, Marilona Alegarbes.
She said she was drinking with Alegarbes in the evening of the first assault and that, after a couple of bottles, Alegarbes brought her to meet with Mezael.
In a separate affidavit, the victim's mother said she only knew of how her daughter had been "pimped" by Alegarbes and that she was shocked because, all the while, she thought the child was still living with her aunt in Talamban.
2 attacks
She said she brought her daughter to the Ermita Barangay Hall where the girl, in the presence of Gender Awareness and Development officer Gardenia Alaba, confirmed the gang rape.
In her affidavit, Nina said Mezael, who was with three other men, asked her to come with them to his house during the night of their meeting, but she refused.
She narrated that Mezael and his companions forcibly brought her into his house. Once there, she said, they took turns raping her. It was around 2 a.m. of Aug. 22. It was the barangay's fiesta.
She said she continued to resist but the respondents had their way. She didn't shout because they warned her of trouble.
In her affidavit, she narrated how the respondents, after having taken their turn, wiped her body with ice water and a towel and, after a few moments, took turns raping her again.
The second attack, she said, happened four days after.
This time, somebody took out a camera-enabled cell phone and took photos of her. She left after the incident.
Paid for sex?
Rupinta, however, said his son was home at the time the attacks happened, because of his rule that his children must be home before 9 p.m.
Told about reports that he allegedly tried to settle the incident by calling the victim's mother to the barangay hall, he said the mother simply sought his help.
He said the victim's mother asked last Saturday that her daughter be jailed for allegedly shaming the family by engaging in the sex trade.
When Ermita's barangay tanods found the girl, she was taken to the barangay hall and then to the Department of Social Welfare and Development 7.
Nemesio Rupinta, 53, chief of tanod operations and an older brother of the village captain, also denied the allegations hurled against his nephew.
Instead, he described the complainant as a drug addict who was willing to take cash or shabu for sex.
Caught on cam
But in a separate interview earlier in the day, the girl's mother said that volunteers in the office of the barangay captain tried to talk her out of pressing charges.
She said Rupinta also tried to talk to her early this week, but she refused.
"He said it was up to us if we wanted to bring my daughter to the Department of Social Welfare and Development," the mother said in Cebuano.
In random interviews, several residents of Ermita said they saw bits of the attack, as recorded on the phone camera, and that one of the figures did appear to be Rupinta's son.
Apparently, no one was willing to tell that to the police, as the boy wasn't among those named in the complaint filed Friday. |
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