Farmer surrenders, admits to girl's rape-slay in North Cotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - A suspect in the rape-slay of a 13-year-old girl in Magpet town admitted to the crime after he surrendered to the authorities on Wednesday.

Senior Inspector Raelen Mamon, municipal police chief of Magpet, said farmer Nonieto Narceso Puno turned himself in three days after the incident.

Barangay officials found the cadaver of the rape victim in a banana plantation on Monday, a day after she was reported missing by her parents.

A medico-legal report confirmed that the victim was sexually abused.

Puno, a resident of Barangay Binay in Magpet, first tried to hide in Mati City in Davao Oriental, but he was convinced by his relatives to yield to the police and answer for the crime.

Mamon said the suspect was fetched from Mati City by members of the Magpet municipal police.

Puno told investigators and local officials that he was drunk and under the influence of drugs when he molested the young victim, whose family also resides in Barangay Binay.

Puno confessed to approaching the victim while on her way home from a neighbor’s house on Sunday night. He said he dragged the girl to the nearby banana farm where she was found dead the next day.