A female inmate came forward on Wednesday to complain about an alleged rape that happened inside the Olongapo Police Station 5 last June 29.
According to local news site Rappler, the female inmate waited until she was moved out of the police station to file a report.
Senior Superintendent Melchor Cabalza III, the Olongapo City police director, only told local reporters about the incident last Wednesday.
He said he personally filed a criminal and administrative case against the officers accused earlier this month.
They include:
Police Officer 1 Raymond Diaz
Police Officer 3 Diosdado Alterado
Police Officer 3 Stevie Rivera
Police Officer 2 Nelson Abalos
Police Officer 1 Ed Mesias
Police Officer 1 Gaylord Calara
According to a report in Inquirer.net, the detainee told police she was forced to dance naked in front of one of the officers. She said she obliged to the request but refused to take off her clothes.
A police spokesperson said that one of the officers involved allegedly forced the detainee to have sex with him while other policemen watched.
Women’s rights group Gabriela spoke out earlier today against the incident.
“The sexual assault of a female drug suspect by ‘Gapo’ cops (Olongapo policemen) confirms our fear — that women who are linked to illegal drugs can be easy targets of sexual abuse by the same people who are supposed to enforce the law,” Gabriela Party-list Representative Emmi de Jesus was quoted in Inquirer.
“Drug-linked women experience a heightened amount of fear if they would defy police orders, especially in the context of the bloody executions of random, helpless people by uniformed personnel. We wonder if there are other cases similar to what happened in Olongapo City,” she said.
While the government has continued its campaign against illegal drugs, De Jesus made it clear that it “does not diminish her right in pursuing complaints against the six cops.”
Last Thursday, President Rodrigo Duterte suspended the government’s Project Double Barrel campaign over numerous complaints of police abuses and extrajudicial killings.
According to the Commission on Human Rights, over 13,000 people have been killed in the war on drugs. The government only acknowledges 6,225 deaths linked to its drug campaign, although they refuse to acknowledge the deaths as “extrajudicial killings.”
Last April, human rights investigators also found a secret cell in a Manila police station where a dozen men and women facing drug charges were hidden.
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