Batangas mayor acquitted of rape

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – The mayor of a town in Batangas was freed on Thursday after he was acquitted of rape.

The woman who filed the complaint against Mataasnakahoy Mayor Jay Manalo Ilagan is a “lying and a bogus rape victim,” said Regional Trial Court Judge James Clinton Nuevo.

Nuevo said there were “too many details” in the woman’s story that did not match verified facts.

“The complainant has not been honest…The court finds her credibility and trustworthiness in serious doubt,” Nuevo stated in his ruling.

“There is enough basis to doubt the alleged victim’s credibility…A reasonable doubt constantly hovers above her supposedly air-tight rape story,” the ruling read.

The 19-year-old woman who worked at a hair salon in Quezon City accused Ilagan of raping her at a pension house in Ormoc City on Nov. 5, 2013. 

In his defense, Ilagan said he had never been to Ormoc. He said he was officiating a wedding at the town hall when the alleged rape occurred. 

He said his political rivals were behind the filing of the complaint after he exposed “ghost” projects involving a renowned contractor.

His legal team is preparing charges against his accusers, he said.

Ilagan was reelected, but the Commission on Elections cancelled his certificate of candidacy for misrepresentation, noting that he was a fugitive when he filed it. 

He went into hiding in 2014 after a warrant for his arrest was issued. He surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation in January and had been detained at its regional office in Ormoc.