P100k bounty up for suspect in San Juan baby girl’s rape-slay

MANILA, Philippines–The San Juan City government has offered a P100,000 reward for the capture of the suspect in the rape and killing of an 11-month-old girl last week.

The police have identified him as Arnel Tumbal, between 25 and 30 years old, and a resident of Barangay (village) Isabelita near the area where the crime occurred.

A high school graduate fond of playing billiards, he was reportedly detained at the San Juan police station in 2002 for theft.

According to a witness, Tumbal was the man who took Geraline Marata Cortes as she was sleeping beside her homeless parents in front of the LandBank branch on N. Domingo Street.

The girl’s parents, originally from Cebu province, lived in Pasay before they moved to San Juan City. Both are unemployed. The father, Ariel, sells cigarettes and mineral water to provide for his family’s needs.

He told the Inquirer that earlier, they had their daughter examined in Sta. Ana because she had been coughing and running a temperature.

Tumbal was identified through the footage taken by a closed circuit television camera installed near the bank.

Case investigator PO3 Ryan Fariñas said that a search was underway for the suspect who would be charged with rape and either homicide or murder.

Based on the autopsy report submitted by medico legal officer Marianne Ebdane, the young girl’s primary cause of death was blunt traumatic injury to the abdomen. There was also evidence that she was raped, Ebdane added.

The victim’s body was found under a passenger jeepney parked on Don Ejercito Street. She was discovered by Efren Reyes Marines as he was cleaning the vehicle around 8:30 a.m. on Friday.

More than four hours before that, the girl was taken by a man later identified as Tumbal as she was sleeping beside her parents, based on the CCTV footage.

It also showed him carrying the child as he walked down Don Ejercito Street where her body would later be found.