5 men held for rape

NORTH COTABATO—Police are preparing rape and child abuse charges and violation of the antidrugs law against five men charged with gang rape.

Two women, including a minor, reported that they were gang-raped by the suspects before dawn on Friday.

Kabakan town police chief Supt. Leo Ajero said the five suspects and the two women agreed to go to the men’s boarding house after a drinking spree to spend the night there.

In their complaints, Michelle, 17, and Kristine, 24 (not their real names), said they trusted the suspects and were surprised when they forced them at gunpoint to have sex. They were also allegedly forced to take shabu at gunpoint.

Ajero said the five men told them the women had consented to what happened. Ajero said the police also recovered from the suspects’ rooms pieces of aluminum foil and white crystalline powder believed to be shabu.

The suspects were detained at the police’s lockup facility in Kabacan, he said. Williamor A. Magbanua, Inquirer Mindanao