Man charged with repeated rape of stepdaughters in Laguna
SAN PEDRO CITY, Laguna, Philippines—A man accused of raping his teen-aged stepdaughters for years in Nagcarlan, Laguna was arrested by police early Wednesday.
Chief Inspector Leopoldo Ferrer Jr, the town’s police chief, said the arrest of Ariel Manjares, 37, was prompted by the complaint of a 19-year-old, who rushed to the police station around 5 a.m. on Wednesday.
According to the victim, Manjares, an hour earlier, went to her and her sister’s room in Barangay (village) Sta. Lucia and tried to rape her. The victim reportedly struggled to escape and sought police’s help for Manjares’ arrest.
The young woman alleged that it was not the first time that Manjares sexually assaulted her and her sister, now aged 19 and 16, Ferrer said.
“The victim said he started raping her since she and her sister were [in their early teens], oftentimes when their mother was not home,” Ferrer said in a phone interview. “The suspect must have thought he could get away with it again this time,” he added.
Manjares did not have a regular job while the victims’ mother took in laundry for a living.
Meanwhile, in Los Baños town, the police filed charges against a certain Albert de Castro, a suspect in the rape-slay of an eight-year-old child, said Senior Supt. Florendo Saligao, Laguna police director, in a separate interview, also on Wednesday.
The girl’s naked body was found in a vacant lot in Barangay San Antonio on December 30, three days after her parents reported her missing.
A report from the Los Baños police said a witness later came forward and identified De Castro as the owner of a silver necklace recovered from where the child was found.
Saligao said De Castro was at large, as of Wednesday, but the municipal government of Los Baños has already offered a P100,000 bounty for his arrest.
