Transgender abducted, assaulted inside van at Magallanes Interchange

MANILA, Philippines—Tine, 19, a fashion student and a transgender woman, was on her way to school when three men on board a heavily tinted van grabbed her and pushed her inside the vehicle in broad daylight at the Magallanes Interchange near Edsa and sexually abused her on Sept. 4 last year.

The victim, who just turned 18 when the incident happened, agreed to talk to the Inquirer after she learned that two other victims, a 21-year-old student and a 14-year-old, were abducted in the same area and also molested apparently by the same suspects last week.

The soft-spoken fashion design and dressmaking student said she learned about the latest incidents from her mother.

The victim also said her mother reported the incident to the Makati police station women’s desk the following day.

Magallanes Interchange in Makati. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

She said she narrated the incident and also gave a description of the suspects and the vehicle, but they had yet to hear from the police.

“Nothing came out of that report, although I learned from friends that a police car was stationed in the area after we reported the incident; but it was only for a while,” the victim told the Inquirer in an interview.

She added that she also did not make any follow-up with the police because she wanted to forget her bad experience.

“Although the trauma is still with me, I could now talk about it, because after the incident I asked my sister and my parents if I could just move on and forced it out of my mind,” the fashion design student said.

She described her attackers as two “Middle Eastern-looking men who speak like Filipinos” and a “typical Filipino” driver, all of whom have yet to be identified and arrested.

The victim described one of the suspects to be between 25 and 27 years old, and the other suspect and the driver to be around 40 and 45 years old.

She narrated that at around 10 a.m., she was walking under the Magallanes Interchange on her way to the jeepney terminal when a dark-colored van with the three suspects on board suddenly appeared along the road and almost hit her.

“I thought the driver was trying to run me over because the van was right beside me, but when its door opened, two men pulled me and pushed me inside the van. I fought them, but they were too strong for me,” the teener said.

She added there were people who witnessed the incident, but no one came forward to help her.

“I fought them, but they were stronger and there were two of them. I had hoped that when there was a commotion someone would help, but sadly there was no one,” the victim said.

The victim narrated that, after, the suspects who were not wearing masks then moved her to the back of the van where the seats had been removed.

The suspects molested her there while the vehicle was moving.

“When they removed my underwear and found out I was not a real girl, the older man got mad and hit me in the face and instructed the younger one to shoot me, who then answered it was all right but pulled my hair tighter,” the victim told the INQUIRER.

He added that despite what she was going through at that time, she wanted to keep her dignity and fought back.

“While they were beating me up because I’m not a real girl, I wanted to shout back at them,   ‘Why did you choose me?’ But I just kept quiet and cried for fear they would shoot me,” the victim said.

She added that she saw bottles of beer inside the van and the suspects “seemed to be in a hyper mood.”

She also said that the three suspects alternately ordered her to do oral sex on them while the van was moving, and when they were done she was kicked and pushed out of the vehicle on a grassy road in Laguna, and they threatened to kill her.

“I was wearing only my underwear when they literally kicked and pushed me out of the van. I pretended to be unconscious after falling off the van for fear that if I moved I would be shot, that’s why I failed to see the plate number at the back of the van,” the victim said.

She said that another transgender who saw her helped her and gave her fare money to go home.

“After we reported to the police, I just wanted to erase the incident from my mind and asked my family not to talk about it until recently when I heard about the new abductions,” the victim said.

She added that after her harrowing experience she had not set foot on the Magallanes Interchange and had changed her route going to school even if she had to take three jeeps instead of one.

“I have to take the longer route going to my school, because I fear that if I go there they might take me again and kill me,” the fashion design student said.

She added that although she still had nightmares about the incident, she shared her experience to friends who also pass through the Magallanes Interchange going to their school.

“I did not want to talk about it, but I had to warn my friends who take that route to school for them to be more careful,” the victim said.

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