Intimidated or paid?

The surfacing of sensational rape cases in Cebu recently had me thinking of that time years ago when our neighborhood was shaken by the revelation that a cop had been molesting a minor for years. Both the perpetrator and the victim were our neighbors. I was surprised because I thought the soft-spoken cop was a straight arrow. The thought of him spending the rest of his life in jail was unnerving.

But justice must be served, I thought, and the man had to pay for his transgression. Dura lex, sed lex. Months later, and when our interest in the case eased, we received reports that a settlement was reached. The cop wasn’t that rich, but he found a way. He gave his house to the victim and her family.

We already know about a 13-year-old girl’s accusation against an unnamed lawyer-broadcaster, who allegedly raped her inside his car in a Parian street that incidentally is not far from a police station. From the narration written in a police blotter, one can conclude that the girl’s family is poor or she would not have gone to the radio station the accused is working with to ask for money.

But it looks like this case won’t move forward from the blotter to the prosecutor’s office and on to the court. Investigators from the Parian Police Station said they could no longer locate the girl and her parents days after they reported the alleged rape incident. The crime supposedly happened on July 4 but the victim only told the police more than a week later because she was scared.

I actually would have wanted this case to reach the court if only to ferret out the truth in the allegation and to ensure that justice would be served. As I noted earlier, if the rape did happen, then we should pity the girl and if it didn’t then we should pity the lawyer-broadcaster. But how can we come up with a verdict if the quest for justice is aborted?

If the victim and her parents eventually decides not to pursue the case, then three things can be conjured: they were intimidated, they were paid off or they made up the story and were afraid the lie would be found out.

Being intimidated is understandable considering the economic standing of the girl’s family. The girl herself apparently needed to be forced to report the alleged incident to the police because even at that stage she was already scared. The magnitude of the case and the social status of the accused can conjure fear. They obviously needed help to overcome that fear but it didn’t come.

Or they could have been paid, which is the common recourse of the guilty or of those who may be innocent but don’t want the case to drag on. But that at least would mean they have gotten something from the incident. And what if the victim only made up the story? Which brings me to my point. Couldn’t the police have at least dome something more than just simply waiting for the victim and her parents to visit them so a case could be filed? They could have, for example, looked into the circumstances of the recent non-appearance of the victim and her parents. I mean, couldn’t we have found a way to at least equalize the situation the victim and the perpetrator is in by the assurance that the victim and her parents have somebody to turn to for help?