Man tagged in rape, murder cases in Mindoro arrested in CamSur

PUERTO GALERA, Philippines — The suspect in the attempted rape and murder of a 14-year-old and the killings of a policeman and coast guard man who had tried to arrest him, was finally arrested in Del Gallego, Camarines Sur, and brought Thursday, to Puerto Galera, where the crime happened.

Almost two years after the alleged rape-slay and three months after the shooting, Manny Datingaling, was arrested by operatives of the Del Gallego municipal police station in Camarines Sur on August 11, Senior Inspector Angelito Guardian, chief of police of Puerto Galera, said on Thursday.

Senior Inspector Nonato Bananeya, head of the 3rd Maneuver Company of the Philippine National Police’s Regional Public Safety Battalion of Mimaropa (Mindoro-Marinduque-Romblon-Palawan) said in a phone interview that Datinggaling was picked up from Del Gallego and escorted to Puerto Galera by an RPSB team led by Inspector Cesar Nunez.

Datingaling has since been turned over to the Puerto Galera police and now held at the Oriental Mindoro Provincial Jail, Guardian said.

Datingaling, a suspect in the attempted rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in Barangay Dulangan, Puerto Galera on Sept. 10, 2011, had been at large since he was ordered arrested in October last year by Judge Manuel Luna Jr. of Regional Trial Court Branch 39 of Oriental Mindoro.

Datingaling was also accused of killing Police Officer 2 Sherwin Reyes, a member of RPSB-Mimaropa, and Police Officer 2 Romeo Bulaklak of the Philippine Coast Guard, while the three were on a boat bound for Puerto Galera on June 11, 2013.

Reyes, who recognized Datingaling as a person wanted, was trying to arrest the wanted man with the help of Bulaklak when the two law enforcers were allegedly shot dead by Datingaling.