Ex-militiaman says he was forced to own up to rape

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – A former militiaman who admitted having supposedly masterminded the rape of a 21-year-old volunteer nurse in South Upi, Maguindanao last month retracted his statement last Monday, saying he was just beaten up and forced to own up to the crime.

Melchor Fulgencio, 52, alias Boy Beling, said in an earlier affidavit that he and a certain Edwin raped the volunteer nurse.

However, last Monday, Fulgencio reportedly executed another affidavit retracting his confession and claiming that he had nothing to do with the crime.

Fulgencio bared his new statement in an interview with a GMA-7 news team in his detention cell in Cotabato City.

Fulgencio claimed he was asleep at home at the time the rape was committed last Sept. 25.

Several sectors earlier expressed suspicions that Fulgencio was just a fall guy and that somebody else was behind the crime.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima earlier told police to probe deeper into the case as she believes there was more to it and that a scion of an influential political family in South Upi town could actually be behind it.

In a press conference yesterday, De Lima said she was not totally convinced that the suspects picked up by the police after the gang-rape were the real perpetrators.

De Lima said President Aquino has issued a directive to make sure that the real perpetrators, not fall guys, “are the ones brought to the bar of justice.”

“We don’t want to announce that the case is closed and we don’t have the right suspects,” she said.

De Lima said she told the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group not to rule out the possible involvement of the vice mayor of South Upi in the incident.

“The PNP-CIDG said they have no basis to tag the vice mayor as suspect. But I told them not to rule out that (angle)” she said.

The STAR yesterday called up Senior Superintendent Marcelo Pintac, Maguindanao police director, but he said he was not aware of Fulgencio retracting his earlier statement.

Meanwhile, doctors at the Southern Philippines Medical Center here said the victim has slowly been recovering although she is still being fed through a tube as her jaw sustained fractures during the attack.

SPMC medical director Leopoldo Vega said the victim has shown some improvements, uttering certain words starting with “Mama,” although her speech remains slurred and hard to comprehend.

Vega, however, she could follow limited commands like looking to the right or left.

The victim suffered brain contusions, causing paralysis on the right part of her body. – With Sandy Araneta