P30T reward offered, City steps in to find missing ‘rape’ victim

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government has dangled a P20,000 cash reward to anyone who can provide information on the whereabouts of a 13-year-old girl who earlier claimed to have been raped by a Cebu-based lawyer-broadcaster.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña has offered the reward after the girl’s family sought City Hall’s help in looking for their daughter, said the Mayor’s Executive Assistant Francisco Fernandez.

Fernandez said all police stations in the city have been alerted about the girl’s disappearance and were told to locate her.

Jessa (not her real name) has gone missing since Friday, her father and mother told reporters in an interview at the City Hall yesterday afternoon.

Last July 13, she told the Parian police that on July 4, she went all by herself to the radio station where her mother’s employer works to supposedly ask money for her school project.

But when she arrived at the station, it was the lawyer-broadcaster who entertained her because her mother’s employer was reportedly out of town.

Her mother worked as a laundrywoman for a program host at the radio station, who also happened to be the suspect’s colleague.

When Jessa learned the person she was looking for was not around, she allegedly asked P7 from the lawyer for her fare back home.

She decided to leave but the suspect allegedly told her to come with him in his car to get money.

When she rode, the suspect then maneuvered the car from the radio station to Zamora Street in Parian, downtown Cebu City. While inside the car, the suspect allegedly took off her clothes and raped her.

Jessa claimed that the suspect gave her P200 in cash and allowed her to leave after.

About two weeks after she and her mother reported the incident to the police, no case has been filed against the suspect.

Police earlier said the child’s medical report indicated there was a laceration on her private part.

Last July 17, the parents also went to the National Bureau of Investigation-7 to seek assistance but they said the pace of investigation has been slow. This was the reason why they have decided to seek the city government’s intervention.

“Niari mi sa Mayor’s Office kay nagpatabang mi tungod sa kaso sa akong anak kay gidawat sa NBI dugay na kaayo ang kaso. Mao tong niari mi sa mayor kay nangayo mi’g advice kung unsay angay namong buhaton,” the father, a trisikad driver, said.

“Nalipay pud mi kay full-support si mayor,” he added.

Jessa’s parents said they are determined to press charges against the suspect for “destroying their daughter’s future.”

They also shared that before their child’s disappearance, she just stayed home and attended to her Facebook account most of the time, still apparently traumatized.

They also said their daughter is in a relationship with someone who is not from Cebu City and that the two would communicate only through chat on the social media. — Amparo Leah A. Pagusara (FREEMAN)