By LITO RULONA
and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
THE City Prosecutor’s Office has recommended the filing of a rape case against Pagatpat barangay chairman Achilles Jude Babaran.
The three-page resolution, signed by City Prosecutor Fidel Macauyag on Wednesday and received by the alleged victim’s family on Thursday, gave the green light to the filing of two counts of rape against Babaran.
The case will be heard at the 22nd branch of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Misamis Oriental Branch, it was learned.
Macauyag said his office found probable cause to try the barangay chairman for the alleged rape of a teenager.
The alleged rape victim was found murdered inside the toilet of a hotel room in Lapasan early this month. The suspected killer was identified only through the presumed aliases “Jason Caram” and “Jason Caramba.”
Babaran has strongly denied having anything to do with the brutal killing of the complainant. In a news conference, he also denied raping the teenager, saying the accusation had political undertones.
But investigating prosecutor Liezel Dacar-Ecol found Babaran answerable for the alleged rape that took place at Kingsfield Lodge in Barangay Kauswagan in the evening of June 19, 2015, and at Sogo Hotel in Barangay Lapasan on Sept. 22, 2015. Incidentally, the teenager was murdered inside Room 314 of Sogo Hotel.
The prosecutor’s office recommended no bailbond.
Reads part of the resolution: “With the foregoing, it is observed that Babaran, 42 years old, used his public position as barangay captain to exercise his moral ascendancy over the complainant, a minor, 16 years old during the commission of the crime. The complainant family lived in the relocation site under the care of the accused, being the barangay chairman of their place.”
Ecol said the complainant was allegedly forced and intimidated by Babaran. It alleged that Babaran threatened her not to tell her parents, otherwise, he would drive them away from the relocation site in Barangay Pagatpat.
The alleged rape victim and her family were survivors of the 2011 Typhoon Sendong devastation who were relocated from Macabalan to Pagatpat.
The prosecutor noted that shelter is a basic need, and to deprive one of this “is putting one in perjury and helplessness.”
She said the alleged rape victim succumbed to this need, “thus, consent to the sexual act is lacking.”
Meanwhile, the women’s group Gabriela joined the family of the victim in calling for justice for the death of the teenager.
Gabriela coordinator for northern Mindanao Rhodora Bulosan also belied claims that the victim worked as a commercial sex worker.
“Sa iyang ika-17 nga natawhan, a day before nga amo siyang ilubong, among i-clear ang iyang pangalan nga usa siya ka bayaran nga babae tungod kay bisan nakita siya didto sa usa ka hotel wala ma’y nahitabo nga sexual favor based on the Soco medical report,” she said.
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