CEBU CITY, Philippines — A 19-year-old university student claimed that she was abducted and raped as she was walking home from school along Barangay Banilad, Cebu City a week ago.
The traumatized student only reported the incident to the police two days after the abduction and rape happened.
Police Corporal Ardy Montalban of the Mabolo Police Station’s Women and Children Protection Desk told CDN Digital on July 17 that the victim showed up at the police station on July 12, and it took her awhile to narrate between sobs her traumatic experience.
“Mo tubag siya pero sigeg hilak (She answers question, but she kept on crying),” said Montalban.
Men in white van
She said that the student claimed that at 5 p.m. of July 10, she was walking home from school in the Barangay Banilad area to Barangay Talamban.
The victim said that when the she reached near the Banilad flyover area, a white van suddenly stopped near her.
Then two men got out — one of them grabbed her tightly in the arms while the other man covered her eyes and mouth with a piece of cloth. They then forcibly carried her struggling inside the van, and then they drove off.
The victim told Montalban that she was raped inside the van.
An hour later or at 6 p.m., the van returned to the area near the Banilad flyover where they abducted her and dumped her there.
She said she then hurriedly went home, and it took her two days to gather the courage to report the incident to the police.
Montalban said that the victim had already taken the medical tests to prove that she was really raped.
Looking for witnesses
Montalban also said that they were verifying the story of the victim and had started investigation on the incident.
She said this included looking for witnesses in the area where she was allegedly abducted.
She said that they hoped that they could get witnesses of the incident especially since the incident happened at 5 p.m. near the Banilad flyover, which would usually experience heavy traffic at about that time.
She also said that they were trying to find video footage of the supposed incident from security cameras of establishments in the area.
With this incident, Police Lieutenant Erlinda Mayam from WCPD of Cebu City Police Office, reminded the public especially students to be vigilant and to avoid walking alone going to school or going home from school.
Mayam, however, assured the public that there was no need for alarm as this was the first abduction case that they had received this year.
Police Colonel Gemma Vinluan, Cebu City Police Office chief, also assured that they would continue to investigate the case until they could get a lead on the assailants and arrest them.
Vinluan also said that she had ordered police to be always on the alert to prevent this kind of incident from happening./dbs