Rape case CIDG8 fails to arrest town mayor

CEBU, Philippines - Tension rose, although it calmed down shortly after, between police authorities and the mayor’s supporters on Saturday when operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Region 8 served a warrant of arrest against the town mayor in Leyte’s fourth district.

The 10-man CIDG-8 team, led by Chief Inspector Teodulo Armada, was supposed to serve the arrest warrant at the mayor’s house, in connection with the rape case—that allegedly happened on May 15, last year—filed by a 25-year-old waitress in Cebu City.

The team waited outside the mayor’s house and some of the CIDG men claimed to have seen the mayor peering through the window of his house but, after 25-minutes, when they were finally allowed to get inside, the subject was nowhere to be found.

The authorities, upon serving the warrant, were allowed to search every room of the house and found the mayor was not actually inside. The mayor’s wife and other family members told the CIDG-8 that he was in Cebu to look for a lawyer who would handle the case against him.

“My husband is not around. Kahit halughugin pa ninyo ang bahay namin, We are not aware of this case and we know for a fact this is clearly politically motivated, dahil nangunguna na siya sa survey against his two rivals in the mayoral race,” the mayor’s wife told the arresting team.

Acting Presiding Judge Marivic Trabaho Daray of the Regional Trial Court-branch 17 in Cebu City last January 12 issued the arrest warrant against the mayor, without bail recommended.

The supposed victim, in her complaint, alleged that she was molested inside a hotel in Cebu City, and that the mayor was later identified when his calling card and ATM card were accidentally left inside the room after the purported incident.

Armada, after failing to arrest the mayor, said more intelligence build-up and surveillance will be strengthened to effect the arrest of the mayor, who is now running for re-election.  (FREEMAN)