ILOILO City – The Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) recorded 144 rape cases across Western Visayas in the first three months of the year.
But with the active women and children’s protection desks of various police units, the PRO-6 was hopeful there would be less rape races this 2018.
Last year, the police recorded 745 rape cases across the region, according to PRO-6 spokesperson Chief Inspector Joem Malong.
This was three cases less than the 748 rape cases recorded in 2016, PRO-6 data showed.
Malong urged parents to be watchful of their children. In 2017 over half of the rape victims were minors, she said.
There were 204 victims aged 12 years old and below, and 341 victims aged between 13 to 17 years old.
So far this year, 42 of the victims were below 12 years old, according to Malong.
Seventy-three rape victims were between 13 to 17 years old while 29 were over 18 years old, PRO-6 data showed.
In a related development, a complaint for rape with homicide was filed against the suspected rapist of an eight-year-old girl in Barangay Sarapan, Passi City.
The complaint against Harlie Cordada, 39, was filed on May 2.
According to Chief Superintendent Norberto Delmas, Passi City police chief, the circumstantial evidence against Cordada was strong even if the suspect denied raping and hacking the girl to death on April 29.
The girl was found half-naked and dead at a sugarcane plantation. Her body bore multiple hack wounds and an autopsy showed she was raped./PN
