Charges await 5 of 7 suspects in ‘gang-rape’

The parents of the victim allege that two of those who violated their daughter are sons of barangay councilors, while one is the nephew of a barangay captain

POLICE are set to file charges against five of the seven individuals suspected to have been involved in the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in Naga City, southern Cebu.

Two of the accused will not be charged as investigations proved they only went to the area of the incident but did not participate in the crime.

Police Lieutenant Colonel William Homoc, chief of the Naga City Police Station, vowed to file charges on June 2, 2023, against the five suspects, who are also the victim’s classmates and schoolmates.

The parents of the victim, who claim to know the names of those who committed the crime, said two of them are the sons of barangay councilors, one is the son of a barangay health worker, while one other is the nephew of the barangay captain.

It is not clear which among the relatives of the barangay officials will be charged and who were found innocent.

One of the witnesses is a woman who was pushed away by the perpetrators when the victim was made to ride a motorcycle shortly before the incident.

The police also interviewed the driver of the motorcycle who brought the offenders to the place where the crime occurred.

The teenager was found unconscious around 2 a.m. last Friday, May 26 on top of the big tank in Barangay Jaguimit which supplies water to the entire barangay.

Prior to being found, the victim attended a debut on May 25 but failed to go home, causing her parents to worry about her whereabouts.

When the victim was questioned, she admitted that she joined the drinking session at the party and that she was forced to consume alcohol against her will until she got drunk.

She recalled being taken to a dark place where she was repeatedly raped and forced to perform oral sex with the other guys.

One of the victim’s female classmates tried to catch up with her, but the suspects stopped her and shoved her, causing her to roll down the slope.

She also told the parents what the suspects did to their daughter.