MANILA, Philippines - A 15-year-old girl going home late Sunday night after visiting a friend in another barangay was gang-raped by at least 15 men in Navotas until past midnight yesterday.
Police Officer 3 Arlene Alvero, chief of the Navotas police women’s and children’s protection desk, said the victim was taken to the Philippine General Hospital in Manila yesterday for treatment and counseling. Alvero said the victim appeared calm before she left their custody but believes she was traumatized by the incident.
Four suspects, three of them minors, were initially held for questioning at the Navotas police station.
Alvero said Rupert Martirez, 22, together with the three minors, were arrested initially only for violating the curfew. The four were taken into custody at around the time the gang rape allegedly happened.
According to Alvero, the victim told her mother that 15 men took turns raping her until around 1 a.m. yesterday.
Alvero told The STAR the victim, who lived in another village, said she went to visit a friend in Barangay North Bay Boulevard South (NBBS) Sunday night. At around 8 p.m., she returned to her friend’s house after realizing she did not have enough money for a ride home. She was told her friend was already asleep.
The victim took a shorter route and passed by a group of men having a drinking session. She said she was asked to have a shot so she could pass unmolested. She obliged and soon felt weak and faint. The victim said it was at this point the men raped her and left her at a nearby vacant lot hours later.
A passerby noticed the victim sprawled on the ground, came to her aid, and called the police.
Witnesses told police they saw several men coming in and out of the house of one of the suspects at around the time the gang rape happened. Alvero said the case is still under investigation.