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Antique Gang-rape Slay

Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00 Written by Restituto Tapacal Tuesday, 24 February 2009 00:24

On January 30, 2009, an unspeakable crime took place that sent chills and shock to the peaceful and peace-loving people of Antique. A third year high school student, a cheerleader, in the capital town of San Jose was brutally raped and murdered in a manner unprecedented in our province's history. According to the report from DYKA, a local radio station in San Jose, the girl, an only daughter, from the prominent Pagtanac family was riding on a motorcycle with her boyfriend along the road of Barangay Dalipe that evening, when a group of men hit them with a wooden club. The boy lost consciousness and the men grab the girl and brought her to "Kampo", an area adjacent to the police HQ. The men took turns in raping the girl. The girl's celphone rang, one of the men answered the phone, it was the girl's mother on the other line asking for the girl's whereabouts. The man who answered mockingly told the mother that her daughter is "ga-iyot iyot" (being
fornicated).

The following day the girl was found dead in the said area, her head bearing the marks of having been hit with clubs, her face unrecognizable due to lacerated wounds on her cheeks inflicted by a sharp weapon, her body bearing all the signs of a violent beating, her organ slashed and stuffed with sand, plastics and pieces of wood. The father, upon learning what had happened to her daughter, suffered a stroke and died also. Fortunately, the girl's boyfriend recovered and made his way home to tell what happened to them in Bgy. Dalipe but didn't know where they took the girl and what had happened to her afterwards. As of this writing, one of the suspects has surrendered, an 18-year old man. The initial report stated that nine (9) men participated in the crime, now there are reports that as many as fifteen (15) men could have been involved.

For a week we have been watching the evening news in major networks in Metro Manila and scanning the pages of major national newspapers and tabloids. But none of them reported or picked up that incident, not even "GMA7's 24 ORAS", considering that it was reported on the program "RATSADA" - a daily news program by GMA-Iloilo. The death of Apl d' Ap's (Black-Eyed Peas) brother in Pampanga was prominently reported last week not because of the nature of the death but because the victim happens to have a well-known brother. But her in Antique, we have a heinous crime, the degree of brutality of which is comparable only with, if not more brutal than the VIZCONDE MASSACRE and the CHIONG SISTERS' RAPE-SLAY in Cebu. In my 39 years I have never known a crime more brutal that had ever happened in Antique since the murder of Governor Evelio Javier in 1986. Only people with sick and unstable minds or drug-crazed persons could have perpetrated such a horrendous crime.

We, the peace-loving Antiquenos are extremely alarmed by this dastardly act. Anyone of you who knows the e-mail address of VACC (Volunteers Against Crime & Corruption) kindly forward this letter to them. We want the national media to highlight this crime in order to put pressure on the authorities, especially the police, the town mayor and the provincial government to act decisively to solve this crime.