If Puerto Princesa City has many rape cases involving minors as victims, blame City Prosecutor Joy Olga Rabang and Assistant Prosecutor Marivic Adla Bungay.
Rabang and Bungay practically encourage the crime by dismissing most rape cases in the City Prosecutor’s Office.
How ironic, considering these prosecutors are women who should be the first to defend the chastity of persons belonging to their gender.
At least 10 rape cases involving minors have been dismissed by Rabang and Bungay, according to records at the local office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
One victim is a 12-year-old girl; another is a deaf mute.
The local DSWD, which describes the two prosecutors as “not child-friendly,” has not criticized the dismissal of the cases apparently because it’s scared of them.
Many are wondering if the rumors are true that money has changed hands.
The reasons the two prosecutors give for dismissing a rape case are ridiculous.
Rabang and Bungay reportedly dismissed a case filed by a 16-year-old high school student because she was no longer a virgin!
The girl’s parents came to my farm while I was vacationing in Sitio Sta. Fe in Barangay Bacungan and showed me the resolution dismissing the rape case they filed against the suspect, Herbe Borbon.
I’ve already quoted the two prosecutors in dismissing the rape case against Borbon in this space on Jan. 13, but it’s worth quoting again if only to show how they decide their cases:
“It is surprising to know that a person, claiming as a 16-year old minor (sic), has healed hymenal tears at 3 o’clock, 5 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 7 o’clock and 9 o’clock positions.
“This implies that the complainant, who is expected to have the innocence of a child, already had sexual experiences.”
The resolution was issued by Bungay and approved by Rabang.
So, a nonvirgin can no longer complain of rape.
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I’ve taken Bungay’s resolution dismissing the rape complaint filed by the 16-year-old girl to Prosecutor General Claro Arellano.
Arellano has reviewed the case and is expected to issue an order for a refiling of the rape case.
I learned that Arellano had asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into the activities of the two female prosecutors.
I’m not telling the NBI how to do their job, but I suggest they go to the DSWD office in Puerto Princesa City for a start.
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It’s people like Rabang and Bungay who work in the government prosecution service, as well as some of their colleagues in the judiciary, who make crime victims or their relatives—or even the police—resort to vigilante justice.
The victims or their relatives or the police find it useless to file cases against the assailants because these are dismissed anyway.
And the citizenry abets vigilante-type justice because the people are sick and tired of the rigmarole in the handling of criminal cases in the prosecution service or the courts.
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Decades ago, the dreaded Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB), an urban guerrilla unit of the New People’s Army (NPA), went on a rampage executing abusive private individuals and corrupt government people.
Although the citizenry cowered in fear, they secretly welcomed the executions when they knew the victims had it coming.
An internal struggle within the NPA put a stop to the ABB’s activities.
If the prosecution service and the courts don’t get rid of their corrupt members, another vigilante group within or outside the NPA might resurrect.
Does the government have to wait for that time before it acts?