ILOILO City – A 19-year-old Central Philippine University college student was raped then stabbed with an ice pick in Barangay Abangay, Janiuay, Iloilo. Two of four suspects, one of whom was 15 years old, were now in the municipal police’s custody.
Ronalyn Bravio was found dead in a rice field at around 6:50 p.m. on Saturday. She was naked and had a stab wound in the abdomen and bruises on her forehead, right eye and neck.
According to Police Major Dadje Delima, Janiuay police chief, Bravio’s brassiere was used to tie her hands and her clothes to tie her feet.
The two suspects currently in police custody were Grade 10 student Reymart Estoque, 18, of Barangay Canawili, Janiuay and a 15-year-old lad from Barangay Abangay, also in Janiuay.
From what the police so far gathered, Bravio went out of their house at around 5:10 p.m. to buy soap from a store some 300 meters away.
“On her way home, she was forcibly taken to the rice field where she was struck on the head with a hard object and passed out,” said Delima.
The rape was consummated while Bravio was unconscious, according to the police official.
The girl was then stabbed with an ice pick.
Bravio’s boyfriend Robbie Chris Natividad started looking for her when she failed to answer his phone calls, said Delima.
On his way to Bravio’s house, Natividad found his girlfriend’s slippers and mobile phone on the road.
He searched the area and later found her body, Delima said.
It was the 15-year-old suspect who spilled the beans on Estoque and two others who remained at large as of this writing.
“We launched a hot pursuit operation against the two remaining suspects. We have their names and their addresses,” said Delima.
According to the 15-year-old boy, Estoque threatened to kill him and his family if he won’t follow his order to also rape the unconscious victim, said Delima.
Estoque, however, denied raping Bravio.
At the time of the supposed rape, Estoque said, he was in Barangay Canawili on a drinking binge at a relative’s house.
Estoque also denied knowing Bravio and that he had never been to Barangay Abangay./PN
