Cop charged with detainee rape surrenders

MANILA, Philippines - A Manila policeman, charged with raping and robbing a female vendor detained at the Manila Police District (MPD) on New Year’s Eve, surrendered to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday.

The National Bureau of Investigation, which is under the Department of Justice, took Police Officer 3 Antonio Bautista into protective custody yesterday and brought him to the NBI headquarters in Taft Avenue, Manila. Bautista was not presented to the media and the NBI refused to have him interviewed.

“I wish to announce the surrender of PO3 Antonio Bautista. He is the policeman accused of allegedly raping and robbing somebody last Dec. 31,” De Lima told the press during an ambush interview at the NBI after she turned Bautista over to the bureau.

De Lima said Bautista’s brother and other family members asked her to give him protection because the policeman feared for his life after the MPD offered P100,000 for his arrest.

“My role here is to facilitate the surrender and turn him over to the protective custody of the NBI,” she said.

De Lima said she is not concerned with the guilt or innocence of Bautista, who is in the protective custody of NBI National Capital Region director Constantino Joson.

“That is not for me to determine at this point. It’s for the courts to determine. The process is already underway to determine that through the preliminary investigation, which will be done by the Manila City prosecutor’s office. I understand that the preliminary investigation was set on Feb. 2,” she said.

De Lima clarified that since Bautista has not been arrested and no warrant for his arrest has been issued as of yesterday, the policeman can go out of the NBI compound if he wishes.

“It is voluntary on his part that he be placed on protective custody. Now, remember, he has not been arrested, nor is he an accused. There is an ongoing investigation by his superiors at the MPD. Now he has his lawyer to advise him on whether or not to participate or cooperate in that investigation,” she said.

De Lima also thinks that the MPD had nothing to do with Bautista’s surrender, because the policeman refused to be taken into custody by the MPD and cannot be brought to the MPD against his will as long as there is no arrest warrant.

MPD director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rongavilla, on the other hand, has requested the NBI to turn Bautista over to them for “restrictive custody.”

According to a complaint filed by the victim, she and her live-in partner were in Carriedo, preparing to go to church before dawn on Dec. 31. She said her partner left her to buy them some coffee.

While she was waiting for him to return, a motorcycle and a tricycle stopped in front of her. She noticed a uniformed policeman accompanied by a man wearing a T-shirt with the word “press” on it, with two other women in the tricycle.

The man wearing a T-shirt told her to come with them to the headquarters because she was under arrest for vagrancy. She told them she was not a vagrant and was just waiting for her husband to return, but the man said she should just come along and clear up things at the MPD.

Once at the MPD headquarters, one of the two women was released, and the victim and the other woman were brought to the office of the MPD Integrity Task Force (ITF), where Bautista reportedly introduced himself.

Bautista allegedly told the victim that she would be detained until Jan. 3 “if you have nothing to give me.” The policeman reportedly took P4,000 from a wallet the victim handed him.

He then allegedly raped her on a table at the ITF office, and the rape only stopped when the victim’s live-in partner arrived at the MPD headquarters to fetch her.              – With Nestor Etolle