‘Rape van’ suspect arrested in Makati

Magallanes interchange. File photo.

Police have identified and arrested on Thursday one of two men who allegedly abducted and molested a 14-year-old girl inside a sport utility vehicle (SUV) in Makati City last week.

Southern Police District (SPD) director Chief Supt. Henry Ranola told reporters that they used footage taken by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera to get the vehicle’s license plate which led them to its owner, a 34-year-old family driver.

Ranola refused to identify the suspect although the Inquirer learned from a source that his name was Janin Ulang Hidalgo. He was arrested on Thursday afternoon on Makati Avenue and the victim positively identified him as one of her abductors.

Based on a police report, the victim was grabbed by two men in a van on Nov. 3 on Gen. Luna Street. She managed to escape when the SUV stopped at a gas station on J.P. Rizal Street, also in Makati City. The teenager claimed that during her five-hour ordeal, her captors kissed and molested her.

Hidalgo, however, told the police that the victim voluntarily went with him and his companion who has yet to be identified.

Ranola said the Makati police was finalizing the case to be filed against the suspect who had promised to cooperate with authorities in helping them find his companion.

The SPD chief added that it did not seem that one group was behind the three abduction cases in the business district since they used different vehicles.

The teenager was the latest to be kidnapped by van-riding men. In September, a 21-year-old student was walking near the Magallanes Interchange when she was grabbed by several men in a neon-colored van without a license plate. She told the police that the men raped her and then dumped her in Bulacan province where several women found her.

In September last year, a transgender woman met the same fate as she was walking on her way to school also near the Magallanes Interchange. She claimed that the three men in a blue van forced her into performing oral sex.

“These are separate incidents whose suspects do not [belong to] the same groups,” Ranola said. -Maricar B. Brizuela