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Friday, November 14, 2008
Suspects in rape-slay of nursing coed named
By Ernie N. Olson Jr.
BAGUIO CITY -- A teenage son of an alleged big-time drug pusher and a scion of a prominent family in Baguio were charged on Thursday for the rape-slay of a nursing student.
Two of the victim's close friends failed to sign their sworn statements for fear that their respective families may be in danger.
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However, sworn statements of 13 other witnesses and policemen were transmitted to the City Prosecutor's Office for the filing of a formal rape with homicide charge against the suspects on Thursday morning.
The two close friends of the victim revealed that their friend earlier threatened to break up with the teenage suspect because the latter had sex with another woman, but he threatened to show a sex scandal to her parents if she would push through with their separation.
The victim was described in an earlier report to be a 17-year-old nursing student at the University of Baguio.
In the same report, it was narrated that the body of the victim was found sprawled near Carling Compound located at Interior A, Balacbac Road around 8:40 a.m. of October 16.
According to Superintendent Rodrigo Jaime Leal, chief medico-legal officer of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory regional office, the victim left their house around 6:45 a.m. that day wearing a floral blouse and a white jacket.
An autopsy of the victim revealed she was raped and smothered to death.
Her former boyfriend went to La Funeraria Paz and asked her younger brother what happened. The brother in turn asked him how he knew about the incident.
The former boyfriend said his companion brought the victim to the hospital in his van. The younger brother got suspicious because he knew his sister was brought to the hospital by responding policemen.
To make sure other people heard what his sister's former boyfriend said he accompanied the latter to where his father was being interviewed by three personnel of Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) Station l0 and asked the question again.
The former boyfriend repeated: "It was my Tito who helped bring your sister to the hospital in his van."
When asked for the identity of the "Tito" he referred to, the teenage suspect said, he does not know his family name. He said he only overheard his “Tito” narrate the information to his mother while he was taking a bath.
Around 9:10 p.m. the next day, October 17, the younger brother texted the former boyfriend and said they would transport the victim's remains to their hometown of Dagupan, the suspect replied, "Please, as a favor to me, go in front of your elder sister and ask her to forgive me. Please? Thank you so much!"
BCPO legal officer Ronald Laoyan said on the basis of the information divulged by the former boyfriend, BCPO Station 10 Chief Romulo Danglose directed Senior Police Officer (SPO) 1 Paulino Lubos Jr. and PO3 Ricky Calamiong to conduct a background investigation on the "Tito" of the younger suspect.
In the follow-up investigation that ensued, a female friend and classmate of the victim sent a text message to the victim's father saying that a witness saw her board a blue van in Campo Sioco in morning of October 16 this year.
When shown a photograph of the former boyfriend, the witness positively pinpointed him as the same person who called the victim to board the van, which was then driven by another man whom he could not identify.
In the afternoon of October 27, the same investigators established the owner of the van allegedly used in the gruesome crime. They managed to get a confirmation from another witness that the man seen driving the van on the day of the rape-slay was its owner.
BCPO Director Wilfredo Franco said: "Touched by the outpouring support for the victim, our personnel worked on every angle, but two proved to have opened a lead for our investigators -- the communication of the minor suspect and that of a witness who recognized the victim before she boarded a van."
"According to the report, there are several witnesses to the crime, as well as certain documents, which could well establish the probable guilt of the accused," he added. (Sun.Star Baguio)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Davao. (November 14, 2008 issue)
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