LA TRINIDAD, Benguet July 10 – Another police officer of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) being linked to the alleged gang rape of a 26-year old single mother in a room at Tuding, Itogon, Benguet from May 23-28 vehemently denied that he was one among the seven suspects that committed the purported crime, saying that his inclusion in the list of suspects was merely a product of a ‘fishing expedition by a fellow police officer, SPO1 Paulino Lubos, Jr.’
In his 11-page sworn counter-affidavit submitted to the Benguet prosecutor’s office, SPO3 Eugene G. Araos, BCPO Station No. 3 v investigator, pointed out that none other than Chief Inspector Marlo Evasco Gasingan, chief of the BCPO Station No. attested to the fact that on May 29, 2015 at around 10 am, he received a text message from SPO1 Lubos, Jr. informing the former that there was an incident of abduction in his area of responsibility and that there was one personnel of the same station involved.
Between 11 am to 12 noon of the same day, the victim who was them accompanied by SPO1 Lubos, Jr. looked at the organizational chart of the station purposely to identify if any of the personnel of Station No. 3 was among the alleged perpetrators of the crime but he argued that the victim failed to identify his picture that day.
He added that very same day, SPO1 Lubos, Jr., as if there was a police officer named June assigned to Station 3, to which Evasco answered that he has one personnel by the name of PO3 Jun Magalgalit who was then summoned to report and he was subsequently confronted by SPO1 Lubos, Jr. if the former knew how to operate a motorcycle, to which PO3 Magalgalit answered in the negative.
Araos cited clearly, SPO1 Lubos, Jr. was merely fishing for information and that the identity of one of the perpetrators of the alleged crimes was not yet actually established, thus, how then could his arrest have been the result of a hot pursuit operation.
“SPO1 Lubos, Jr. has an acts to grind against the undersigned, the defeat of his fighting cock by the fighting cock of the undersigned during the cockfight at Shilan, La Trinidad, Benguet just a few days earlier. There also seems to be an assumption on the part of the arresting officer that since the alleged abduction happened in Mines view and that there was a mention of a police officer that police officers of BCPO Station 3 are the ones involved in the alleged crime,” Araos stressed.
According to him, during the dates May 23-28 when the victim was allegedly abduction and subsequently raped, he asserted he rendered duty from 4 pm to 12 midnight which was duly supported by the pertinent documents required from them to sign during and after their duty hours.
He emphasized he was not among the persons who allegedly abducted the victim at around 5:30 pm in the afternoon of May 23 since he already reported for duty on that day several hours before the said incident and rendered duty on the said date.
Further, Araos explained there was no mention whatsoever of him by the victim in her narration of events that day of May 24, reiterating that he again rendered his tour of duty that day.
Worst, he was not the male person who raped the victim on May 25 since the male person was described by the victim to be small and medium built and sporting blond hair, asserting that he is already tall and does not even sport a blond hair.
The police officer argued it was impossible for him to have met with Jude Samson Saydawan during the daytime of May 25 at Pacdal, Baguio City since he was at the cockfight at the Shilan cockpit arena and during the cockfight, his fighting cock was paired to the fighting cock of SPO1 Lubos, Jr. and his cock eventually won.
He claimed he was not the police officer named by the victim as the one who raped her four times on May 26 and the drug test results conducted on him negates her claim that her abductors smoked shabu.
Araos also attached affidavits of several individuals, one of whom is the laborer doing carpentry works in their residence, who could attest to his whereabouts on the said dates when the victim claimed she was going raped.
Moreover, he said the same person whom the victim claimed she had been testing before she was ordered to board the gray van denied her allegations, citing that the same is questionable citing the circumstances behind such claim.
The police officer also presented affidavits of several witnesses that would contradict her previous statements alleging that she was abducted and gang raped.
Likewise, he disclosed all the various allegations of the victim that she was brought in and out of the room where she was held captive and that those who allegedly raped her packed shabu inside the room were contradicted by three witnesses who also submitted their respective affidavits before the provincial prosecutor.
He questioned the victim on how she was able to know that a certain Arnel Palangdan was from Tuding when she only met her once and after stating that she was to be brought to Arnel’s place, the place she and SPO1 Paulino Lubos, Jr., a member of the Benguet Provincial Police Office intelligence branch, now claims to be the place where the alleged gang rape transpired is in the house of a certain Kenmark Alberto Pinas, one of the suspects in the case.
He rebutted that the victim’s description of the pathway leading to the room where she was allegedly raped for six days does not conform to the actual pathway leading to the house of Kenmark, arguing that there was no showing of a stairs then a road then a stairs again which was her description of the pathway where she was made to pass everytime she was brought to and from the house where she was allegedly raped.
On the victim’s claim that she was gang raped by the seven suspects inside a room that has now window, the suspect and his other colleagues were able to present photographs that the place where the gang rape incident happened has a window.
He reiterated his earlier allegations that the victim’s accusations are purely lies because she declared her date of birth as May 26, 1989 but her certificate of live birth revealed that her date of birth was November 15, 1989.
He pointed out being raped by seven men for six consecutive days would definitely reveal injuries on the victim, especially on different parts of her body, most probably on her legs and arms and also on her genital area, however, the victim’s medico legal certificate showed that there were no evident injury on her body at the time of examination.
On the other hand, the police officer branded the allegations on the sworn affidavit of the victim’s boyfriend, Rey Amboy Sabado Soda, are mere fabrications considering that his allegation that he saw hematoma on his girlfriend’s legs was negated by the result of the medico legal certificate which clearly states ‘no evident injury at the time of examination.’
Araos therefore prayed to the prosecutor to dismiss the complaint of abduction and rape against him for lack of merit and that he also prayed for such other reliefs just and equitable under the premises.
By Herald Express News Team