Reward posted for info on Magallanes ‘rape van’

MANILA, Philippines – The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has offered a P200,000 reward to anyone who could give information leading to the arrest of suspects in the recent rape and abduction incidents along the Magallanes Interchange in Makati City. The van has allegedly abducted two students in separate incidents.

‎MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino announced this on Monday ‎as he vowed to ask the Philippine National Police to increase patrol in the area.

He said more Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) units would be installed at the interchange.

“We have to take these incidents seriously and act quickly for the arrest of the [perpetrators],” Tolentino said.

In September, two female students, 21 and 14, were abducted and sexually molested by at least four men on board a heavily-tinted van in separate incidents.

The 21-year-old victim was walking along Edsa-Magallanes when a van stopped in front of her. The men seized her, pushed her inside the vehicle and then raped her.

The victim said she found herself the next day at a grassy area in Malolos, Bulacan.

The 14-year-old girl, meanwhile, was abducted by purportedly the same men along Kalayaan Avenue, also in Makati City.

As the van pulled over at a gasoline station, the girl managed to flee from the men.

In the same month last year, a 19-year-old transgender woman revealed that she went through the same ordeal.

The victim, a fashion design student, said she was taken by “Middle Eastern-looking men” ‎on a van at the Magallanes Interchange.

After the men molested and beat her, she was kicked and pushed out of the vehicle on a grassy road in Laguna.

Tolentino said additional CCTV cameras‎ would be installed within the vicinity to “augment the current monitoring system.”

The National Capital Region Police Office will also deploy additional forces as crime deterrents.