CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The local government of Gitagum town in Misamis Oriental has ordered a crackdown on internet shops and loiterers, following the rape-slay of a five-year-old girl suspected to have been perpetrated by a male minor.
Gitagum Mayor Emmanuel Mugot on Tuesday said he instructed village leaders of the town’s 11 barangays to check internet shops and accost loiterers or “tambays” in their areas.
Mugot said he ordered the crackdown to prevent a similar incident from taking place.
The police said a 12-year-old minor had raped and strangled to death his younger cousin in a secluded area in Barangay Cogon, Gitagum on June 27.
“We are now monitoring ‘pisonet’ (coin-operated internet stations) to check if their clients have access to pornographic websites. We will also order internet shop operators to block these pornographic sites so users can’t access them,” Mugot said.
By law, minors are prohibited from viewing adult sites, especially in public internet shops, so that they will not be influenced by the lewd contents found in these sites, the mayor said.
“We are implementing these measures because we don’t want the same crime to happen in Gitagum,” Mugot said, adding that both the victim and the suspect are related to him by blood.
Senior Insp. Ron Baba, Gitagum police chief, said all evidence pointed to “Boboy” (not his real name) as the main suspect of the crime. Witnesses claimed he was the last person the victim was with before the incident.
Baba said the suspect, who is now under the custody of the police, will still appear in court to face the charges and it is up to the judge to decide whether or not he will be turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for rehabilitation.
When asked by investigators, the suspect was inconsistent in his statements, Baba said.
Antonio Palasol Jr., Cogon barangay chairman, who led a group of village officials in searching for the victim on Wednesday afternoon, said they took the suspect with them to act as guide but led them to a wrong location twice.
Eventually the perpetrator led them to a secluded area, where the victim was found covered in grass and twigs. She was still wearing her clothes when found.
Based on the report of the Scene of the Crime Operatives, Baba said the victim may have been raped before being strangled to her death.
The girl’s grandmother said the victim was supposed to come home from school on time but did not show up for more than an hour.
“When she did not come home, I asked around where she was and was told by neighbors that she went with [the suspect]. That was when I started to worry,” she said.
The grandmother said the suspect admitted he was with the victim but that she went ahead after eating mangoes. (PNA)
