2 teens rob, rape vendor in Tondo

Police arrested two teenage boys for allegedly robbing and raping a female vendor in Tondo, Manila before dawn yesterday.

Jose Abad Santos police station chief Superintendent Remigio Sedanto said Rommel Matudan, 18, of Solis street, Tondo; and Sonny Guevarra, 18, of Liwanag street, Tondo, were arrested following a complaint by the vendor, also a resident of Tondo. The two suspects are members of the Bahala na Gang, according to Sedanto.

The victim said she was on her way home at around 3:30 a.m. when the two suspects blocked her path and, with a fan knife, robbed her of her cellular phone and P300. She said the suspects brought her to a vacant lot and took turns raping her. She told police the suspects stripped her of her clothes, which she found about 20 meters away after the suspects left her.

She said she recognized the suspects as among the passengers of a jeepney she had taken on her way home.

Sedanto called on other rob victims to identify the suspects, who are detained at the police station and facing robbery with rape charges. – Nestor Etolle