CEBU CITY, Philippines — An 18-year-old man, who was accused of raping his 14-year-old niece and getting her pregnant, ended up in jail after policemen arrested him on Friday, Sept. 17, in his home in a mountain barangay in the southern town of Cebu.
The young man, who denied the allegations of rape against him, was served a warrant of arrest and was now detained at the southern town’s police station’s detention cell pending the return of the warrant of arrest to the issuing court, said Police Lieutenant Zosimo Ravanes, team leader of the Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG) Visayas Field Unit.
Ravanes said that the warrant of arrest they served on Friday was issued by Presiding Judge Francis Rainier Rodriguez Navarrete of the Regional Trial Court Branch 93 in Argao, Cebu.
This was issued last September 16 with no bail recommended.
The victim filed the complaint against the accused last April 2021, which was a few months before the baby whom he fathered was born in June.
The victim was the daughter of the accused’s cousin.
Based on the background of the case, Ravanes said that the alleged rape happened in 2020, when the victim was still 13 years old and the accused was 17 years old.
“Usahay sugu-on kuno ni ang bata (babaye). Mao nay panahuna nga magkita sila sa bukid unya mao nay nahitabo nila. [at first] Kasabutan siguro. Unya nadugay, murag nireklamo nani ang bata, unya gihadlok na siya nga patyon,” Ravanes said.
(Sometimes, the young man would ask the girl to run errands for him in the mountains. That is the time that they will meet in the mountains and that is where the incident happened. Perhaps, [at first] both consented to do it. But eventually, the girl complained about it, and it was then that the young man allegedly threatened her with death.)
The victim filed a complaint against the accused when her family and relatives knew that she was pregnant. It took time for the family to confirm the victim’s pregnancy as she reportedly kept on denying it.
The victim then claimed that she was raped by the accused multiple times. She provided medical certification to the court to support her rape complaint against the accused, although she could not tell how many times the incident happened.
As of now, Ravanes said that they would return the warrant of arrest to the issuing court in Argao town on Monday, September 20.
Ravanes said that this was the sixth wanted person that they arrested in Cebu for September alone.
As there were no kidnap for ransom incidents in the region, Ravanes said that they conduct these manhunt operations where they track down and arrest wanted individuals in the region.
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