UK-born woman says Philippine police didn’t help, Interpol probing

ILOILO CITY—A British-born woman, who said she was held captive and repeatedly raped in the Philippines, had sought help from Philippine authorities but received no assistance, the woman said in an interview with the Inquirer.

But the Philippine National Police insisted that it had no knowledge or information about her alleged ordeal. It also noted some inconsistencies in her statements.

“I told them (Philippine police) everything and gave them all the evidence I got. But nothing happened,” said Mary Elizabeth Jones, in a phone interview with Inquirer from New Zealand on Friday.

Her voice cracked and she started to break down when told she was talking to someone from the Philippines. She didn’t calm down despite being told she was talking to a reporter, not a government official.

“I can’t talk to you anymore because the Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) is already investigating it,” Jones said before she turned silent.

A man who said he was helping Jones later spoke on the phone and said that she had broken down.

No police report

But Senior Supt. Marietto Valerio, Iloilo City police director, said police had not received any report or complaint related to Jones’ claim that she had been held captive in the country and repeatedly raped by up to nine men for five and a half months.

He said based on records of the Bureau of Immigration, Jones entered the Philippines on February 3 and left on April 12 this year, contrary to her story published in the Auckland-based daily New Zealand Herald that she arrived in the Philippines in October 2010.

She also checked in with a male companion at a pension house in Iloilo on February 4 this year where they stayed until the morning of February 6, said Valerio.

Valerio said police records showed that the staffers of the pension house sought police help on February 5 after they heard Jones crying in her room.

Jones allegedly became distraught after her companion, whom she identified as a Mr. Didulo, left her at the pension house, taking her money with him, according to Valerio.

The police official said Jones’ companion came back to the pension house in the afternoon and the couple checked out the next morning.

Lured in Facebook

“We have no information about her after they left the pension house. The pension house staff told our investigators there was nothing unusual with the couple and their stay in the pension house except the time that Jones was looking for him,” Valerio said.

Jones, 39, earlier told the New Zealand Herald that she was held captive and repeatedly raped by up to nine men daily for five and half months.

She said she came to the Philippines in October last year on an invitation she saw in Facebook to a martial arts training program.

But she told the New Zealand Herald that her belongings were taken and she was held captive in a small and dirty room shortly after she arrived at the Iloilo airport.