1-million peso ($17,782) reward for arrest of rape-slay suspect in the Philippines

Manila: A teen camper was raped and her boyfriend was murdered in a grisly incident in the town of Boac, on the island of Marinduque.

The 17-year-old rape victim “Lyn” (not her real name) and her 21-year-old boyfriend were camping on July 15 when an unidentified suspect stabbed the latter, killing him instantly.

“Lyn” tried to escape the suspect twice, according to the victim, but the rapist prevailed. Aside from being raped, she was also strangled and stabbed in the neck.

In a YouTube video posted on the “Raffy Tulfo in Action” account, Lyn recounted her experience last Friday, July 15, when the suspect barged into their tent while she and her boyfriend were on a camping trip.

“Sabi niya lang po sa akin [ng suspect], ‘Bakit kayo nandito? Bakit kayo nagtatago rito?’ Sabi ko, ‘Hindi po kami nagtatago. Nagpaalam po ako sa kapatid ko,’” the victim told the Senator.

(The suspect told us, “Why are you here? Why are you hiding here?” I said, “We’re not hiding. We asked permission from my brother.”)

“Noong nagahasa po niya ako, tinanong iyong pangalan ko pero hindi po ako nagsabi ng totoong pangalan ko. Ang nabanggit ko po iyong sa kapatid kong pangalan… Hindi raw po niya ako papatayin,” she further recounted.

(When he was raping me, he asked for my name but I didn’t tell him my real name. I gave my sibling’s name instead and he told me he wasn’t going to kill me.)

“Lyn” recounted that the suspect was wearing a cap and a face mask. But she saw a glimpse of the suspect’s face when he was sexually assaulting her.

“I remember him as dark-skinned with thin cheeks. He is thin. He looks like a young man but he also looked like an addict. His body is dark. Then his height is a handspan taller than me,” Lyn told the Senator in Filipino language.

During Tulfo’s radio show, the senator offered a Php1-million ($17,782) reward to anyone who could lead to the arrest of the murder and rape suspect.

Persons of interest

Five “persons of interest” had been identified in connection with the rape-slay case, the Boac municipal police station told local media on Tuesday.

Boac police chief Police Major Jerome Mendiola said they have so far sent the photo and voice recording of one person of interest to “Lyn” the rape victim.

“We haven’t arrested any suspect as of now, but we do have five persons of interest. We have already obtained pictures and a voice recording from one of them. We’ll do the same for the remaining four and send it to the victim,” Mendiola told local media.

Mendiola added that upon the request of Senator Tulfo, local police have added another police officer to guard the victim, who has since been moved to a hospital in Lucena, on the main island of Luzon.