Two Pasay City policemen are facing charges for allegedly extorting money from a drug suspect, while one of them is also accused of raping the suspect’s live-in partner.
The woman was allegedly forced to have sex so she could “make up” for the amount her partner could not cough up.
The alleged rape took place shortly after midnight of Jan. 26 in the patrol car used by Police Officers 1 Jonathan Castro and Marvin Panaga, who were placed under arrest after the couple sought help from the media and city police chief Senior Supt. Rodolfo Llorca.
On Wednesday, Assistant City Prosecutor Redentor Esperanza found probable cause to charge Castro and Panaga with robbery, and Castro with the second, nonbailable crime of rape.
They have been ordered relieved of their posts and will face trial before Judge Pedro de Leon Gutierrez of Pasay Regional Trial Court Branch 119.
According to the woman’s complaint-affidavit, the two officers arrested her partner “for urinating in public” around 1 a.m. on Jan. 26 on Merville Access Road, but they also accused him of carrying illegal drugs after a packet of “shabu” supposedly fell off his pocket.
She said her partner was handcuffed and was told by Panaga that he would need P100,000 for “bail.” Castro later said it can be reduced to P40,000, she added.
When she told Castro that she only had P5,000 on hand, the officer allegedly replied: “Kulang pa rin iyan. Ikaw na lang ang kakulangan (That’s still not enough. You could make up for the balance).”
Around 4 a.m. or three hours after the arrest, the woman said, she was forced to “give in.” The alleged rape happened at the officers’ patrol car while it was parked near Precinct 10 on Merville.
She claimed that after the rape, she went home to produce an additional P15,000 for Castro, who finally released her partner after getting the money.—Jodee A. Agoncillo