Girl, 8, assaulted at Bilibid

MANILA, Philippines - An eight-year-old girl who attended a New Year’s Day party at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), where her father is an inmate, was nearly raped by another inmate, officials said yesterday.

The girl was playing with other children at the party, held at the reception area of the NBP’s maximum security compound, when she went missing on Thursday afternoon, according to Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) director Franklin Jesus Bucayu.

The girl and her mother were among the visitors allowed to visit inmates at the maximum security compound on Thursday, NBP officer-in-charge Superintendent Richard Schwarzkopf Jr. said.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima went to the prison yesterday to supervise the investigation of the incident.

The girl told investigators that while they were playing, two or three of them were separated from the other children. She said she was approached by her attacker, who told her he would bring her to the park, De Lima said in a television interview.

Prison guards found the girl unconscious in the compound chapel’s restroom, with bruises on her body. There was a length of rope tied around her neck and she was naked from the waist down, De Lima said.

While she had marks on her neck, a medico-legal examination at the NBP Hospital found that the rape was not consummated, Bucayu said.

The girl later identified her attacker as Norvin Domingo, who is serving an eight-year sentence for robbery with intimidation and a member of the Bahala Na jailhouse gang. He was apprehended at the gang’s dormitory, Schwarzkopf said.

Domingo “admitted the offense,” Bucayu said, adding that the girl’s father belongs to the same gang.

Repercussions

An administrative investigation is being conducted to determine the liability of prison personnel for their failure to monitor the movement of visitors at the nine-hectare facility, Schwarzkopf said.

Domingo was taken to the “disciplinary cell” while they are preparing to file charges, particularly statutory rape, against him, Bucayu said.

“He will also be sanctioned administratively. He will face the Board of Discipline,” Bucayu said, adding that his visiting privileges will be cancelled and his good conduct time allowance – which shortens an inmate’s sentence – will also be affected.

Last month, a series of raids at the NBP yielded illegal drugs, cache of firearms, cash and other contrabands from cells of high-profile inmates – mostly drug convicts.

Twenty inmates were also temporarily transferred to the National Bureau of Investigation detention facility on reports that they were able to continue with their illegal drug operations while inside the NBP.

De Lima, who has administrative supervision over the BuCor, had also ordered the relief of seven NBP officials.