By SEN GUINGGUING

Suspect meets victim in one Panglao bar

Known for its subdued night life, the peace and quite at around midnight Thursday of Panglao’s tourism belt—the Alona strip, was shattered with a gruesome incident involving the rape-slay of a bar cashier of one of the island’s famous resorts. Tagged as suspect in the grim rape-slay was Erwin Escomo, 22, single, a native of Lamada, North Cotabato, and said to be moonlighting as a security guard of Alona Divers’ Resort, a famous resort located in the island’s tourist row popularly known as Alona beach. He was connected as temporary guard of Godswill Security Agency pending completion of official training for blue guards. Interviewed while being locked up at the Camp Dagohoy jail Friday, the suspect said he was “out of his mind” when he raped and then killed the victim identified as one Josephine Satorre, 23, single, a native of Maasin Leyte, and until the cruel incident was working as cashier of U-Bar, a drinking outlet of the Alona Divers’ Resort. Claiming to be a former member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) as evidenced from his ID, the suspect said he met the suspect after “they called it a night” Thursday at Aim’s Disco Bar also at Alona. It was in this bar that she reportedly met the victim.

BRUTAL RAPE SLAY

According to his confession, the suspect admitted to have participated in a pot session in a place in the Tawala area before he and his group proceeded to the said bar located nearby. Adding potency to the prohibited drug they took that time which was presumably shabu, Escomo and his group also downed several bottles of Red Horse beer. The lethal effect of illegal drugs and extra-strong beer must have robbed the suspect of whatever was left of his sanity that time. While at the Aim’s Disco Bar, the suspect met the victim which was believed to be enjoying the night out in the same nightly joint. It was also on the same occasion that Escomo had the chance to meet the victim who incidentally after the night out was over may have been thankful to the security guard that at least she would have a companion on their way back to their employer’s establishment. On their way home, according to the suspect’s narration, the two were a virtual twosome as the suspect was even quoted as saying as having put his arm around the victim while walking on the way to the resort they were working.

It was not until they reached a secluded area that the suspect’s evil design came into play. Without much ado, he reportedly boxed the victim’s abdomen causing her to cringe in pain resulting in her loss of consciousness. This was the time that he raped the hapless lady. Not contented with having raped the young woman, the same suspect reportedly inflicted injuries on the girl’s eyes using sharp-pointed objects. An autopsy shown that the girl’s genitals were also inflicted with sharp objects. In the ensuing post-mortem investigation, it was gathered that the way the suspect inflicted injury on the victim in ending her life, the fatal blows were so vicious and wicked that no normal human in his normal senses would have been capable of doing it. As the suspect admitted in the investigation, he was really “high on drugs” art the time he committed the crime. Expressing remorse after the lethal imp[act of the prohibited drugs shall have subsided, the suspect asked for forgiveness for what he had done to his co-employee and her nearest kin. According to Police Inspector Cesar Acompañado, Panglao police chief, a police team picked up the suspect somewhere along the Alona shoreline. There was an attempt on the part of the suspect to escape via Cebu but the better part of discretion prevailed upon him to surrender and owned up the brutal crime.

MAYOR REACTS

With the grim incident riveting all of Panglao these days, Mayor Benedicto Alcala reacted furiously as he ordered Panglao policemen to take the island’s drug problem seriously. In so many public forums in the past, Mayor Alcala, made it a point to remind his audience about the danger of drug addiction. In his forays in the barangays, the Panglao mayor said if Panglao’s drug menace is left unchecked, the populace will wake up one day of grim scenarios of a mother being raped by a drug addict-son. The strong possibility of this kind of incestuous crime happening in Panglao troubled him most, Mayor Alcala retorted. He said with the latest incident jolting Panglao, he called on the police to intensify its efforts to crack down on drug pushers and users. The mayor said he will throw the full force of the local government in ferreting out the dregs of Panglao society especially those who are hooked to drugs. Mayor Alcala admitted the fact that Panglao is riddled with illegal drugs and its about time to go after those responsible of propagating them as a lucrative enterprise.