Cabbie faces raps for molesting girl

MANILA, Philippines - The Quezon City police are considering filing charges against a taxi driver for allegedly molesting a girl who was a passenger in his vehicle before dawn yesterday.

With a kitchen knife still stuck in his back, Nine Stars taxi driver Socrates Manalad, 41, went to the Libis police station in Quezon City before dawn yesterday, claiming a couple had robbed him.

Several minutes later, a 16-year-old girl was brought to the same station, claiming she had stabbed a taxi driver who sexually molested her when she had ridden in his taxi. The girl’s description of the cabbie she stabbed, police said, fit Manalad.

Quezon City Police District director Chief Superintendent Benjardi Mantele said Manalad was taken to the Quirino Memorial Medical Center for medical attention.

Mantele said his men scoured the area around Mercury Avenue where Manalad claimed he had been attacked, but they found no suspects.

At around 6:40 a.m. yesterday, police received information from a security guard of the D&L Industries, telling them an injured teenage girl had sought refuge in their compound, apparently fearing for her life.

When interviewed by police officers at the Women and Children Protection Desk, the girl said she stabbed a taxi driver with a knife in self-defense when he molested her.

Investigators said they doubt Manalad’s claim, but Mantele has ordered a deeper investigation of the case even as both parties were determined to file countercharges against each other.