POLICE arrested another suspect in the kidnapping and rape of a 16-year-old student in Naga City, southern Cebu.
Frederick Benedict Go was arrested in a restaurant in San Antonio Village in barangay Basak-Mambaling, Cebu City yesterday noon.
Police said Go is reportedly a son of a former Talisay City councilor, a report that he neither confirmed nor denied.
Go was the third person to be arrested in connection with the alleged kidnapping.
First to be arrested were Jojo Gimarangan and Joey Dela Cruz, both 19 years old.
The two were workers of a farmhouse where the girl was brought, police said.
There were seven persons involved in the alleged kidnapping, said Senior Insp. Ma. Theresa Macatangay, chief of the Regional Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force.
Police said the victim identified Go as one of the four persons who took turns in raping her.
Go denied the accusations against him.
Gimarangan and Dela Cruz, both natives of Negros Occidental, worked as errand boys of the farmhouse’s owner.
The two also denied involvement in the crime. They will be considered accessories to the crime, Macatangay said.
Police said Gimarangan admitted that he saw Go bring the victim to the farmhouse last Wednesday evening.
The victim’s parents thanked the police for the arrests.
The three suspects will be charged for illegal detention and rape, police said.
The girl told police that she was outside a church in Naga City when three armed men abducted her.
The girl was brought to an abandoned house in barangay Pung-ol Sibugay in Cebu City where she was allegedly raped.
The victim escaped the next day by jumping through the toilet’s window and ran towards Talisay City.