Authorities are looking at the possibility that the man who raped a dentist’s secretary and then ransacked the clinic in Marikina City last week may be a copycat or the cohort of a man convicted in 2011 for robbing more than a dozen clinics and sexually assaulting several dentists or their staff.
This was after city police officials learned that Albert Galang de la Cruz died at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) hospital in Muntinlupa City in March.
During his arrest in Las Piñas City in 2011, De la Cruz admitted that he carried out 19 of the 23 dental robberies reported in Metro Manila.
Senior Insp. Eduardo Cayetano, Marikina police investigation chief, said that a copy of De la Cruz’s death certificate was forwarded to them by prison officials.
At the time of his death, De la Cruz was serving a life sentence for raping a woman dentist and ransacking her clinic in Paco, Manila in 2011. He was found guilty in March last year.
Cayetano said the cause of death was listed as stabbing although no other details were given by prison authorities.
“Everything I’m telling you is based on the death certificate,” he told the Inquirer.
The information was verified by Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Jesus Bucayu who said that De la Cruz died after he was stabbed inside the prison compound on March 7.
“He was pronounced dead on arrival at the NBP hospital,” Bucayu said in a phone interview with the Inquirer.
However, he could not give further details, including whether De la Cruz was killed by a fellow inmate, as he said he assumed his post days after the stabbing.
All that he knew, Bucayu added, was based on prison records.
Because of the new information, the Marikina police have shifted their attention to the possibility that last week’s rape and robbery case reported at a dental clinic in Barangay (village) Concepcion Uno was carried out by De la Cruz’s cohorts or a copycat.
Cayetano earlier said that at least six of De la Cruz’s cohorts remained at large.
According to him, the police will soon distribute a composite sketch of the suspect based on the description to be provided to them by the victim.
“Hopefully, after the shock [has worn off], she can identify her perpetrator,” Cayetano said.
The victim had described her assailant as around 5’7” in height, of heavy build, with fair complexion and semicurly hair.
The man who had pretended to be a patient asked about the services offered by the dentist and wrote his name down as JV D. Castro in the clinic’s logbook.
At that time, the dentist was not around so the victim asked the man to come back. Instead of leaving, however, he took out a gun, raped her and then ransacked the clinic.