All Saints’ Day rapist nabbed

Police arrested yesterday a jobless man who raped and robbed a 16-year-old girl in Caloocan City while the rest of her relatives were at the cemetery on All Saints’ Day.

Caloocan police chief Superintendent William Macavinta said Dennis Alvin de la Cruz, 22, was arrested in Barangay 188 by a police team led by Police Officer 3 Ricky Sta. Isabel.

PO1 Marcy Pino of the Women’s and Children’s Concerns Desk (WCCD) said De la Cruz was arrested at around 10:30 a.m. yesterday after he was identified by the victim, who accompanied the police team during the manhunt.

The police team spotted him talking to a man who gave him a plastic sachet of what later turned out to be shabu. They confiscated the sachet and a nine-inch kitchen knife from the suspect.

The victim told probers that she was manning their family  store at around 9 a.m. when De la Cruz, whom she did not know, bought cigarettes and engaged in small talk, asking if she was alone.

When it rained, the victim went to the house’s second floor open area to get the laundry. When she rushed back, she found the suspect already in the house. 

The victim said De la Cruz raped her. Her cousin avoided being raped by claiming she had just had an operation. The suspect fled with some P80,000 in cash, jewelry and other valuables, which have yet to be recovered.