Man charged with repeated rape of

stepdaughters in Laguna

SAN PEDRO CITY, Laguna, Philippines—A man accused of raping his teen-
aged stepdaughters for years in Nagcarlan, Laguna was arrested by police
early Wednesday.

Chief Inspector Leopoldo Ferrer Jr, the town’s police chief, said the arrest of
Ariel Manjares, 37, was prompted by the complaint of a 19-year-old, who
rushed to the police station around 5 a.m. on Wednesday.

According to the victim, Manjares, an hour earlier, went to her and her sister’s
room in Barangay (village) Sta. Lucia and tried to rape her. The victim
reportedly struggled to escape and sought police’s help for Manjares’ arrest.

The young woman alleged that it was not the first time that Manjares sexually
assaulted her and her sister, now aged 19 and 16, Ferrer said.

“The victim said he started raping her since she and her sister were [in their
early teens], oftentimes when their mother was not home,” Ferrer said in a
phone interview. “The suspect must have thought he could get away with it
again this time,” he added.

Manjares did not have a regular job while the victims’ mother took in laundry
for a living.

Meanwhile, in Los Baños town, the police filed charges against a certain
Albert de Castro, a suspect in the rape-slay of an eight-year-old child, said
Senior Supt. Florendo Saligao, Laguna police director, in a separate interview,
also on Wednesday.

The girl’s naked body was found in a vacant lot in Barangay San Antonio on
December 30, three days after her parents reported her missing.

A report from the Los Baños police said a witness later came forward and
identified De Castro as the owner of a silver necklace recovered from where
the child was found.

Saligao said De Castro was at large, as of Wednesday, but the municipal

government of Los Baños has already offered a P100,000 bounty for his
arrest.
Prison sex assault of girl, 8, fuels anger in
Philippines
Manila, Philippines–An eight-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in a toilet at
a notorious Philippine prison, officials said Saturday, fuelling a national uproar
over revelations that its inmates were “living like kings” with stripper bars and
jacuzzis.

The girl, who was visiting her inmate father at Bilibid prison in suburban
Manila on New Year’s Day, was found sprawled on the bathroom floor, naked
from the waist down and with a rope tied around her neck, officials said. Initial
medical tests did not indicate that she had been raped.

“The incident involving the eight-year-old is nothing short of deplorable,”

presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte told AFP.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said an inmate had confessed to attacking the
girl and would face additional criminal charges.

“He rendered her unconscious, strangled with the intention of raping her,” de
Lima said.

The assault came three weeks after a police raid of the prison found stashes
of drugs, cash and guns — as well as sex dolls, a stripper bar and a jacuzzi —
spread across an astonishing network of air-conditioned “villas” built for
powerful crime lords.

One inmate, bank robbery gang leader Herbert Colangco, had a recording
studio in his villa, where he made a full album of love ballads.

Colangco’s YouTube posts also revealed that he staged elaborate shows

inside the prison gymnasium where he was cheered by crowds waving pink
pom-poms.

“We are trembling with anger. We are sick and tired of this system,” Dante
Jimenez, chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, told AFP.

Jimenez, called on President Benigno Aquino to overhaul the entire prison

system and transfer Bilibid to an island, similar to the former maximum-
security prison on Alcatraz in the United States.
“They should be surrounded by sharks and crocodiles,” he said.

Bilibid, the nation’s biggest prison, is infamous for overcrowding and brutal
conditions — it was built to accommodate 8,900 inmates but currently houses
more than 23,000.

Philippine jails have long had a reputation for corruption, but the scale of
privileges enjoyed by kingpins at Bilibid shocked the nation.

The government is “taking measures to stop any and all possible criminal acts
inside the penitentiary”, Valte said.