Crime victim who sought state protection claims she was abused inside safehouse

The Department of Justice and the police are separately investigating allegations that a 21-year-old woman, who was under the DOJ’s protective custody, was raped more than 30 times by her security escort in Cebu City.

Assistant Regional State Prosecutor Llena Ipong-Avila confirmed the ongoing probe after the victim revealed her alleged ordeal following her discharge from the DOJ’s Witness Protection Program (WPP).

The woman, a rape victim, was admitted into the WPP last December and was taken to a DOJ safehouse in Banawa, barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City. She opted out of the WPP on Thursday and sought the help of this correspondent who referred her to the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office. The victim is a resident of Lapu-Lapu City.

Avila, who is the implementor of the WPP in Central Visayas, said they are cooperating with the police in the investigation.

“We are not hiding anything here. We express our willingness to cooperate with the investigation conducted by the police,” Avila said.

“She really wanted to go out from the program. She kept on crying so we decided to let her sign a waiver and quit-claim and then grant her request. Her stay with the DOJ’s witness protection program was already terminated.”

The victim, accompanied by her parents, immediately went to the Women and Children’s Protection Desk of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office (LLPO) at 10 p.m. Thursday, after she was escorted back to her parents’ home in Lapu-Lapu City, but there was no officer on duty to attend to her complaint.

They went back the next day and the victim was made to narrate her ordeal before Women’s Desk investigators and Senior Supt. Lyndon Lawas, chief of the LLPO.

The victim said she could not remember the exact date when she was first sexually assaulted by her security escort, who was code-named Billy. She said she was abused from January to March before the suspect was allegedly suspended by Prosecutor Llena Ympong in March.

The victim said there were two to three other women “crime victims” in the safehouse, but she was allegedly disallowed by Billy to join them in their room and was made to sleep in the living room.

The victim claimed that Billy poked a gun at her the first time she was assaulted.

“Ayaw gyud pag-saba ani ha? Damay gyud mong tanan diri (Don’t you ever tell this to anybody or else all of you will get into trouble),” the victim quoted Billy as saying.

She said Billy would assault her whenever he’s on duty at the safehouse for three consecutive days in a week. The victim’s mother said her daughter was abused 36 times.

The victim, moreover, claimed that she reported her ordeal to Prosecutor Ympong in March. Ympong allegedly sent her to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center to undergo a mental fitness test and was sent back to the safehouse when the test yielded that she’s in a normal state of mind.

“Sakit para nako nga ila ko gidudahan nga buang. Ila nang pasangil nako aron mahimo ko nga dili katuhoan (It pains me that they even suspected me of being mentally disturbed. They just made that up to make my story unbelievable),” she told Cebu Daily News.

The victim claimed Prosecutor Ympong allegedly tried to persuade her to clam up to protect Billy and his family considering that the security officer had been suspended for three months.

Second thoughts

The victim said she had planned to flee the safehouse, but could not do so. She was also having second thoughts in confiding to her mother whenever they see each other at the WPP office at the Palace of Justice as she feared that Billy would make good his threat.

The victim’s mother complained that she was prohibited by DOJ officials from visiting her daughter at the safehouse.

“Nakamatikod gyud ko nga magul-anon kaayo na siya didto sa safehouse kada bisita nako mao nga ni-sikreto ko og hatag niya og cellphone aning bulana kay bawal man na didto. Kadto pa ko nakahibalo nga duna gyud diay nahitabo niya, mao nga migawas mi sa custody sa DOJ kay wala man sila’y gihimo anang kasoha (I sensed that she was very much disturbed whenever I see her. That’s why I secretly gave her a cellphone despite it’s being prohibited by regulations. It was only after I gave her a phone this month that I came to know about what happened, that’s why we decided to opt out of DOJ custody since they’re not doing anything on this case),” the victim’s mother said.

LLPO’s Supt. Lawas said he immediately called Prosecutor Ympong to relay the victim’s allegations. The prosecutor said they are ready to face the victim’s accusations.

Lawas likewise endorsed the police investigation to the Guadalupe Police Station of the Cebu City Police Office as the alleged crime happened within their jurisdiction. /with a report from Ador Vincent Mayol