InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines – An 18-year-old girl on Monday filed rape charges before the Department of Justice against a vice mayor of a Nueva Ecija town.
Jasmin (not her real name), claimed in the case she filed that she was raped six times by Vice Mayor Romeo Borja Jr. of Pantabangan town between June and September 2011, when she was just 17 years old.
Jasmin is now eight months pregnant, allegedly with the vice mayor’s child.
Borja is facing another rape charge before the Cabanatuan City court filed by Mina, 18, whom he also allegedly raped and impregnated. Mina’s child with Borja is now three years old.
Mina, who used to serve as househelp for the vice mayor, is awaiting the verdict on the rape case that she filed in 2009.
Gabriela Women’s party-list group assisted Jasmin in filing the case against Borja.
“The rape and abuse of women in Pantabangan will continue with impunity and women will always live in fear as long as justice isn’t served,” Gabriela party-list Representative Luz Ilagan said.
“Their assailant, powerful and wealthy as he and his family may be, must be made accountable for this heinous crime. We must continue to rage against rape especially if the accused is a public official who use and abuse their power to inflict violence,” Ilagan added.
According to Gabriela, Jasmin first saw Borja in April 2010 when she won in a beauty pageant in the town. Borja was the one who awarded Jasmin the trophy.
Since then, Jasmin has been receiving text messages and calls from Borja, who expressed interest in courting her, a proposal she turned down because the official was married.
In June 2011, Jasmin went to a friend’s house and got drunk. When she woke up, she found herself naked in bed with Borja. But Jasmin was too drunk and too weak to resist and the rape took place.
On the same month, Borja got in touch with Jasmin and asked her anew for a date. When Jasmin refused, however, the vice mayor threatened to release through social media sites their photos when they were in bed.
Fearing the scandal it could create, Jasmin agreed to be fetched by Borja’s driver, Fritz Taguinin Juan, and meet the vice mayor in his office where she was raped anew. The incident happened for four times more, and on each occasion, Borja would put his gun beside them, according to the account prepared by Gabriela.
When she informed Borja in October 2011 that she was pregnant, the official allegedly told her to abort the child, and offered her money and scholarship. It was at this time when Jasmin decided to tell her mother about her condition and seek help from Gabriela.
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