3 gang-rape, murder suspects fall

Police agents announced the arrest of three suspects reportedly behind the abduction and gang-raping of the 33-year-old daughter of a former Caloocan lawmaker and general manager of the country’s premiere international airport, after killing her driver in Quiapo district, Manila last week.

Director Nestorio Gualberto, PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief, said the suspects were arrested in a series of police operations in Manila and Caloocan City Saturday.

Police said the suspects abducted the victim, also a close relative of Sandiganbayan Chief Justice Francis Garchitorena and wedding goddaughter of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jose Lina Jr., in Quiapo last week. The STAR is withholding the identity of the victim.

Nabbed were Datu Amala Pundoga y Imana alias Mamaki; Lacson Tambidan y Digno; and Mitmug Okoda y Adji; all residents of the Muslim Center, Quiapo, Manila.

The suspects were identified by their victim, a real estate executive, who was able to escape on the third day of her captivity, after she was made a virtual sex slave by the suspects.

Gil Martinez, 48, the victim’s driver was killed by the suspects, investigators said.

Reports showed that the victim together with her driver aboard a rented Isuzu Hilander, went to Quiapo district to meet a certain Michelle Uy at the Muslim Center.

Initially, the victim claimed, when she arrived in Quiapo she met Mamaki, an acquaintance, and sought his help to find Uy.

Mamaki, on the pretext of helping her, allegedly summoned Tambidan and Okoda to join them. After a brief talk with Mamaki, Tambidan and Okoda approached the victim’s driver and demanded the car key from him before they killed him.

According to the victim, after the killing of her driver the suspects held her at bay and she was forced to take drugs and was sexually abused.

"She claimed that she was forced to sniff shabu and smoke marijuana several times," Gualberto added.

Gualberto said that the victim’s ordeal ended when she escaped in San Juan from a certain Tata Ding and Rose, to whom the suspects entrusted her, who were about to take her to Pasig City Friday night.

When interviewed yesterday, the victim was still visibly under the influence of illegal drugs.

"They forced me to take shabu and smoke marijuana," the victim said.

Her disappearance last Tuesday alarmed her immediate family and prompted Secretary Lina to order a full, but discreet police operation to rescue the victim and arrest the suspects.