2 teens in rape-slay of girl, 7, nabbed, to be freed

MANILA, Philippines - A 17-year-old and a Grade 5 student were arrested yesterday for the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl whose decomposing body was found in a creek last week in Parañaque City.

National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Alan Purisima declared the case of Clariza Pizara solved following the arrest of the two suspects.

Senior Superintendent Billy Beltran, Parañaque City police chief, said the suspects did not resist arrest and even admitted their role in the rape and murder of Pizara.

The two suspects said they knew the victim, who was a resident of a squatters’ area in Barangay San Dionisio.

Police said the suspects would be charged but not jailed.

“Under the law, you cannot detain a minor. This should be a wake up call to our lawmakers that the law is flawed,” said Chief Inspector Ferjen Torred, intelligence chief of the local police.

Torred was referring to Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice Act of 2006.

Torred said the suspects also admitted to kidnapping the victim, who was last seen in front of a sari-sari store at around 5 p.m. last Feb. 20.

Her body was fished out of Balitahar Creek in Barangay San Dionesio on March 5, after her parents received a text message telling them where to find her.

Torred said the girl was brought to an open field where the two boys took turns in raping her.

“When they could not penetrate her genitals because it was bleeding, they sodomized her,” Torred said.

The police major said the girl kept crying and to silence her, the boys drowned her in the creek.

Torred said “the suspects are ”solvent boys” and were under the influence of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) when they committed the crime.”

The Philippine National Police earlier offered a P1-million reward for information that could lead to the arrest of the suspects.