BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
ILOILO City – While a father from Miag-ao, Iloilo faces a case for raping his daughter in the last five years, a 60-year-old grandfather from Dumangas, Iloilo has been arrested for doing the same on his 16-year-old granddaughter.
The grandfather, a farmer, was cornered in Barangay Calao, Dumangas yesterday around 10 a.m. four years after the warrant for his arrest was issued.
The suspect was the No. 3 most wanted man in Dumangas, said Senior Inspector Charlie Sustento, the town’s police chief.
The rape happened in January 2010. At that time, the grandfather and his granddaughter were living in the same house.
“The victim was only 16 years old when her grandfather sexually abused her. She was left alone by her parents to work in the rice field,” said Sustento.
The suspect left the house after learning that the victim had confided to her parents. He went into hiding.
Recently, a concerned citizen informed the police that he had seen the suspect in Barangay Calao.
The grandfather is now detained at the Dumangas police station.
No bail has been recommended for his temporary liberty.
The arrest warrant was issued by Judge Gerardo Diaz of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 68.
“We have been looking for him for four years already. We are thankful to our tipster for the information on the suspect’s whereabouts,” Sustento said.
Meanwhile, in the Miag-ao rape case, the father remains detained at the municipal police station. While he denied his daughter’s allegation, his now 16-year-old high school daughter is bent on filing a rape case on top of the child abuse case she filed much earlier.
The daughter did not immediately report the sexual abuse that had been going on for the past five years because she feared her father, said Senior Inspector Ceferino Gelpe, Miag-ao police chief.
She only got the chance to reveal it at the police station when her mother reported to the police that her father had beat her black and blue in the evening of July 22.
Her 40-year-old father allegedly got angry upon knowing that she had a boyfriend.
Police Officer 1 Maricel Celestial, Women and Children Protection Desk in-charge of the Miag-ao police station, said the girl is undergoing counseling to recover from the trauma./PN
