THE Naga City police have filed charges before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, June 2, against the five individuals who allegedly gang-raped a 16-year-old girl in Naga City, southern Cebu.
According to Police Lieutenant Colonel William Homoc, chief of Naga City Police Station, one of the five accused gave an extra-judicial confession about the rape incident.
There were also two witnesses who positively identified the accused as the culprits, who are also the victim’s classmates and schoolmates.
“Lima gyud ang gikiha nato bahala na ang korte nga mo determine,” Homoc said.
(We sued five, it’s up to the court to determine).
Two of the accused were not charged as investigations proved they only went to the area of the incident but did not participate in the crime.
According to the witnesses, the victim and the suspects were attending a debut of their classmate on the evening of May 25 and were drinking three liquor brands – Emperador, Kulafu and Tanduay – mixed with lime juice until 2 a.m. of the following day, May 26, 2023.
Homoc said that based on the statements made by partygoers, the suspects left with the victim, who was later found unconscious on top of a big tank in Barangay Jaguimit, which supplies water to the entire barangay.
When the victim was questioned, she admitted that she was repeatedly raped and forced to perform oral sex with the other guys.
Due to the statements of the witnesses and the testimony of one of the suspects, Homoc described their case against the accused as strong.
It is expected that the arrest warrant will be issued against the perpetrators, who are between the ages of 15 and 17.
The victim was examined in the Pink Room of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City on the same day she was discovered, and the results showed that she had been raped since she had a hematoma at six o'clock position that extended to her perihymenal area.
Meanwhile, the Naga City police held a drug symposium in the barangay where the five suspects live to inform the residents about the negative effects of illegal drugs.
They will also hold a seminar for the high school students to teach them how to prevent crime by abstaining from using illegal drugs. (AYB, TPT)