2 young Koreans face rape case

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

CEBU CITY -- Rape complaints were filed Monday against two Korean nationals who allegedly raped two Japanese women last Saturday dawn, then left them to pay for the motel room bill.

Inspector Delfin Bontuyan of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Central Visayas said that Carl Park, 21, and Jong Duk Lee, 24, underwent an inquest proceeding on Monday in the Lapu-Lapu City Prosecutor’s Office.

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An inquest is a summary inquiry that is meant to check if the warrantless arrest of a person can be justified by probable cause.

Carl Park’s family owns Isla Mactan Resort Hotel and Spa in Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu city. But the alleged rape last Saturday happened in the Queensland Motel in Barangay Pajo, Lapu-Lapu City.

CEBU. The two Korean nationals who were accused of raping two Japanese women head for the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group office in Cebu City, escorted by Insp. Delfin Bontuyan (right).(Allan Defensor)

A commitment order requesting the police to send the suspects to the Lapu-Lapu City Jail was supposed to be issued, but since the time ran out, the suspects were detained in the CIDG Central Visayas stockade in Cebu City instead.

Akira Oka, a former president of the Japanese Association-Cebu Inc., urged his countrymen staying in the Philippines not to hold any grudges against the Koreans.

Caution

Trust that the wheels of justice are turning, he said in an interview over ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol Central Visayas.

Oka admitted being saddened by the alleged assault.

“There is danger in staying in a foreign country. They (travelers) must be watchful and protect themselves,” he said.

CIDG regional Chief Jose Pante, in a press conference, said the agency has coordinated with the complainants and suspects’ respective consuls.

But lawyer Benjamin Negapatan, one of the defense lawyers, said what happened in that motel room was consensual sex.

The two Japanese women, 21 and 20 years old, were seen in a motel room in Lapu-Lapu City the morning after a drinking spree that reportedly brought them to two joints in Cebu City.

Walk

From their motel room, after the suspects fled, the women immediately sought the help of the CIDG.

Among the evidences are a medical report and one earring, allegedly belonging to Park, which was left on the bed.

The complainants recalled that they were walking from their rented apartment in Lapu-Lapu City last Friday, when the suspects befriended them as they passed by Isla Mactan Resort. The two men reportedly offered to drive them to a mall some 12 kilometers away.

The women accepted, then parted ways with their new friends at the mall. But one of the suspects managed to get one woman’s cell phone number.

That afternoon, they met again at a coffee shop and the men invited them for a round of drinks in an establishment in Barangay Busay. After that, they transferred to a complex along Gen. Maxilom Ave., where they had a shot of tequila.

Bontuyan said he believes that the last round of tequila was laced with drugs because the ladies were dragged from the car to get to their motel room in Lapu-Lapu.

Heard her

One room boy, who asked not to be named, recalled that the suspects wanted to rent only one room for all four of them, but the management asked them to book two rooms.

The suspects took Rooms 8 and 6. But the room boy noticed later that night that one suspect from Room 6 transferred with one woman to Room 8.

By 5 a.m. Saturday, the room boy said, he was trying to wake up the occupant of Room 9 when he heard a commotion and a woman moaning in pain in the other room. He did not bother them.

An hour later, the guard called the room boy because the two suspects were reportedly on their way out.

The suspects told hotel personnel that the ladies would settle the bill.

But the room boy woke up the ladies, who said they have no money. So the suspects hurriedly paid the hotel P700 and immediately left.

When the hotel employee returned to the victims’ room to inform them that the room had been paid for, that’s when the women alleged they had been raped.

Misdirection

The victims called a Filipino friend, who went to the motel and brought the victims to CIDG official. Chief Inspector Fermin Armendarez and Bontuyan followed up the case.

When Bontuyan checked Isla Mactan Hotel, he learned the suspects’ identity and found one address in Sunny Hills, Talamban. From the subdivision’s guard, the police official learned Park’s complete address.

That late Saturday morning, Bontuyan said, one of the victims woke up Park, but the latter denied involvement.

When Bontuyan asked him about his earring’s pair, the suspect reportedly said it was on his bed but Bontuyan showed him the missing earring.

They then asked Park to call his cohort to settle the matters and Lee arrived at CIDG, where he too was arrested. (DSM/OCP of Sun.Star Cebu)