POLICE arrested a man tagged as one of the four men who robbed and raped an aeronautic school student in barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City last Tuesday.
Arneil Ontong, 27, was playing card games at the back of a church in barangay Pajac when he was arrested around 4 a.m. Wednesday.
At the police station, the victim identified Ontong as one of the four men who waylaid her on her way to school, said Insp Jose Nilo Abello, chief of the Theft and Robbery Section of the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office.
Abello said Ontong was implicated in several robbery cases in Lapu-Lapu. He was allegedly a cohort of Ronald Fuentes, who is being hunted by police for robbery cases.
The victim told police that her assailants flagged down the tricycle she was riding on her way to school.
The victim said her co-passengers blindfolded her and brought her to a secluded area where she was raped.
The girl said the culprits also took her P5,000 cash.
The victim found a way to escape when she was brought back to the place where the assailants flagged down the tricycle.
An operation to arrest the other culprits is in progress, police said./CORRESPONDENT NORMAN V. MENDOZA