‘Raped’ GRO faces libel raps

MANILA, Philippines - A ranking official of the Makati City police whom a guest relations officer (GRO) mistook for her rapist has filed a libel case against her before the Manila prosecutor’s office.

Superintendent Jaime Santos, deputy chief of the Makati police, said the GRO, alias Maureen, 29, degraded and blemished the reputation of his family, especially his wife and daughter who are now suffering emotional trauma and stress.

“The malicious imputation of the crime of rape against me by exhibiting and using my picture resulted in casting dishonor, discredit or contempt upon me being a public servant,” Santos said in his two-page complaint filed last week.

He added he became a butt of jokes among his colleagues after the GRO mistook him for her alleged rapist.

“Every time I would report to the Southern Police District headquarters, the policemen and even my fellow officers would salute me and call me Superintendent Emelo,” Santos told The STAR, referring to Superintendent Erwin Emelo, the head of the SPD’s Special Operations Group (SOG), accused by Maureen of raping her in his office.

Maureen had admitted that she made a mistake when she identified Santos as Emelo.

She said she was sick and wearing sunglasses when a television reporter showed her the picture of Santos on a cell phone.

Maureen was among the GROs arrested by SOG operatives during a raid on Miss Universe Club at the corner of Libertad and F.B. Harrison streets in Pasay last month.

Emelo took Maureen and another GRO in his office, where she was allegedly harassed and raped.

Maureen has filed a rape complaint against Emelo before the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). She was placed under the government’s Witness Protection Program.

Emelo went on voluntary relief last Oct. 25. He and the other members of the SOG raiding team are under the custody of the SPD’s District Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit to prevent them from interfering with the probe.

The SPD is conducting a separate investigation of the rape complaint filed against Emelo.