Dad drags Panglao mayor in rape case

A Panglao councilor has dragged the name of Mayor Doloriech Dumaluan to a cover-up of a three-year old rape case. In an affidavit furnished the Post, Kagawad Cereno Hormachuelos, with the help of counsels lawyers Venzenzo Arcamo and Dennis Hora, sought the reopening of the celebrated rape case before the Provincial Prosecutor's Office. Hormachuelos together with the two lawyers are anchors of a radio program “Panglao Pagpakabana” over Station DYTR.

In the same Hormachuelos sworn statement, he said he and his fellow anchors regularly received text messages and entertained calls, both on air and off-the air from concerned individuals both residents and non-residents of Panglao. The text messages were about complaints against the present administration of the municipality as well as issues and matters of public concern, the affidavit added

But what caught the attention of Hormachuelos was the issue of a rape case in barangay Bolod that took place three years ago. He said a lone accused was charged in court but text messages and off-the-air calls by residents of the same barangay insisted and persisted that the brutal and vicious act was not committed by a solitary perpetrator but it would appear that the lone accused has several companions. He named in his affidavit at least five suspects.

According to the Panglao councilor, his informants are afraid to come out in the open because of the “involvement of the incumbent mayor.” IN dragging the name of the mayor to the rape case, Hormachuelos said when the municipal executive assumed office shortly after winning the elections in 2004, he relieved the chief of police and the investigating officer after they concluded the investigation. The relief came after the investigators almost solved the sensational rape case.

The victim, identified as Vivian Dumaluan, was a relative of the mayor.

The suspicion of Hormachuelos that the mayor took special interest of the case was buttressed by reports that the mayor supported the accused by providing him a lawyer and the family of the lone accused was given financial assistance. Although the case was already in court, the parents of the victim sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation to reopen the case. But the NBI told the parents to file a motion before the Provincial Prosecutor's Office to reinvestigate the case before it (NBI) conduct its own investigation. The Hormachuelos affidavit was corroborated by Dominie Yomoyo Ragusta, the investigating policeman of the rape case when he was assigned in Panglao. He confirmed that after he gathered the evidence and followed up rthe leads pertaining to the case where he concluded that the perpetrator is one Narciso Maghamil alias Isot. e confirmed that based on the evidence, it would show that the crime was not only one person but it would appear that the lone accused had several companions when they committed the crime.

l