Ormoc court junks rape case vs ex-mayor

ORMOC CITY—A local court on Thursday ordered the release of former Mayor Jay Ilagan of Mataas na Kahoy town in Batangas province after it dismissed the charges of rape filed by a 19-year-old woman against the official here.

Executive Judge James Clinton Nuevo of the Regional Trial Court Branch 12 said there was basis to doubt the credibility of the mayor’s supposed victim, “in this case, a reasonable doubt constantly hovers above her supposedly airtight rape story.”

In 2014, the woman sued Ilagan for allegedly sexually assaulting her in 2013 in a pension house in this city.

Ilagan surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila in January 2016 and he denied the charges.

Ilagan, a reelectionist mayor of Mataas na Kahoy, won in the May 2016 election but the Commission on Elections (Comelec) nullified his candidacy.

The Supreme Court, in July, upheld the Comelec ruling paving the way for Ilagan’s rival, Gualberto Silva, to take oath as mayor. —ROBERT DEJON