University of the Philippines Los Baños campus PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK.COM
LOS BAÑOS,Laguna — The tricycle driver who allegedly picked up and raped a 17-year-old student of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) was arrested from his relative’s home in Calauan, Laguna.
Superintendent Jesus Gatchalian, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) police director, named the suspect as Jose “Joey” Montecillo, 26, a resident of Barangay (village) Putho-Tuntungin in this town.
He said Montecillo was arrested around 1 a.m. Friday in Barangay (village) Lamot, Calauan.
In a phone interview, Gatchalian said the police interviewed other tricycle drivers in Barangay Maahas of Los Baños, from where Montecillo usually picked up his passengers.
The police zeroed in on Montecillo as the suspect when he did not show up to ply his usual route last night.
Authorities also learned from the other drivers that Montecillo’s wife had just given birth and was confined at the Bay District Hospital, in the adjacent town of Bay.
A radio report quoted Laguna police Chief Senior Superintendent Florendo Saligao that the suspect confessed to his wife that he was involved in a crime and asked her not to look for him.
The wife told the police that her husband had left her a letter in the hospital that said “he (had) committed a crime and was begging for forgiveness from his wife for what he had done” before leading the police to the Montecillos’ relatives in Calauan town, Gatchalian said.
Montecillo, now detained at the Los Baños municipal police station, was also identified by the victim.
The female college student was reportedly raped Wednesday evening along the dimly-lit IPB road right outside the UPLB campus, where another UPLB student, Given Grace Cebanico, then 19, was raped and killed three years ago. With a report from Nestor Corrales, INQUIRER.net
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