Batanes rape suspect freed in prosecutor’s absence

BAGUIO CITY—The progress of a rape case, that was solved last week by the Batanes police, was derailed by one of the island province’s bigger problems: Absent prosecutors.

Police were forced to release a 44-year-old farmer because they could not locate a prosecutor to charge him with the rape of an 11-year-old girl from Uyugan town on Oct. 12, according to Senior Supt. Edgardo Pamittan, Batanes police chief, in a text message sent on Thursday.

Both victim and suspect live in Sitio Song-song in Barangay (village) Kayvaluganan in Uyugan.

The alleged rape took place at 9:45 p.m. on Saturday, Pamittan said, and the crime was reported to the Uyugan police by a village councilor, Noemi Bacali.

Police tracked down the suspect and detained him on Sunday morning. The girl was examined at Batanes General Hospital and doctors found evidence of rape, police said.

But Batanes provincial prosecutor Alejo Tangaro Jr. was out of town, and no justice official was available to handle inquest proceedings for the suspect on Monday, according to a Batanes police report. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon