Suspect in rape, slay of UP hostel employee nabbed

A guilty conscience led to the arrest Tuesday of one of the two men who robbed, raped and killed a 26-year-old hostel marketing officer in Camarin, Caloocan City, on October 4.

Erik Macaraan, 18, was picked up by policemen at his relative’s house in the Camarin area at around 1 a.m. Tuesday.

A witness, Jerry Mañoto, earlier tagged him as one of the two men who killed Jee-Anne de Guzman, a marketing officer for a hostel on the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City.

Another witness identified Macaraan’s cohort as Eros Allid, also known as Dandan, who remains at large.

According to Mañoto, he was walking home at around 8 p.m. on October 4 in Camarin when two armed men dragged him to a dark area where they stripped him of his clothes and valuables.

They then tied him up and left him lying on the ground.

He added that after a few minutes, the two men returned with De Guzman whom they also robbed before they took turns raping her.

Mañoto said that afterward, the robbers strangled De Guzman to shut her up.

Macaraan’s arrest came after another teenager, 19-year-old Wilson Hilao, went to the police on Monday night because his conscience was bothering him.

Hilao said that days before De Guzman was killed, he, Macaraan and their two other cohorts—Allid and a 16-year-old boy—had talked about staging robberies in the area where her body would later be found.

He also told the police the whereabouts of their 16-year-old cohort, leading to an operation thath led to the latter’s arrest in Plaridel, Bulacan province.

In turn, the minor told the police where Macaraan could be found.

Case investigator Senior Police Officer 1 Noli Albis told the Inquirer that the 16-year-old boy had been turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

During the boy’s arrest, the police recovered a pen gun from him, Albis added.

Senior Superintendent Jude Santos, Caloocan police chief, told the Inquirer that charges of robbery with homicide and rape would be filed against Macaraan.

Earlier, Santos said that Macaraan had been arrested for various crimes since he was 16 although he was never charged because of his age.