Former Ecija mayor pleads innocent on rape charge

ANGELES CITY—The former mayor of Pantabangan town in Nueva Ecija province on Wednesday pleaded innocent to charges of rape, human trafficking and child abuse filed by a former beauty pageant contestant in his town.

Former Mayor Romeo Borja Sr., who was arrested in Umingan town in Pangasinan province on Feb. 8, appeared in his arraignment at the Regional Trial Court Branch 61 here.

Borja was Pantabangan mayor from 2007 to 2013. He lost his bid for a third term in May 2013.

The charges were filed in the Department of Justice in March last year by the complainant, who represented Pantabangan in Nueva Ecija’s Miss Teen Tourism pageant in 2011. She said Borja and his son Romeo Jr., raped her in several instances in 2011.

Judge Bernardita Erum scheduled for March 12 the hearing of Borja’s motion to detain him instead in a hospital. The former mayor has reportedly been suffering from hypertension and tuberculosis.

Borja has been held at a prison of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology here since his arrest early this month.

“He looks frail and sick,” Fr. Ernie Pesimo, parish priest of Pantabangan, said when asked to describe Borja in court.

Borja evaded media interviews.

Pesimo attended the arraignment to assist the complainant who claimed to be only 15 years old when the crimes took place three years ago. She turned 18 in November.

Borja’s wife, Joy, questioned the credibility of the complainant, telling reporters that the rape could not happen in three places at the same time. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon