The 42-year old baker from Gigmoto who sexually abused his own daughter over a period of 17 months from June 2019 to February 2021 has pleaded guilty to 161 counts of rape.
A reliable source at the Regional Trial Court told the Tribune that Anthony Pitogo Reformina admitted responsibility for the series of crimes during his arraignment last August 5, 2021 before RTC Branch 43 Presiding Judge Lelu P. Contreras.
The source added that, as required by the Rules of Court, the prosecution presented evidence to prove the degree of culpability of the accused.
Promulgation of the sentence against Reformina would likely be made this coming September, it is claimed.
However, additional rape charges could be filed against him soon after the authorities learned that a medigo-legal examination of his other daughter, just 10 years old, found healed lacerations in her sexual organ.
It may be recalled that the baker, who became the number one Most Wanted Person in the province, was collared last Aug. 1 at his residence in barangay Sioron by elements of the Gigmoto municipal police station, the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) and the Catanduanes 1st Provincial Mobile Force Company, 2nd Platoon.
The arrest warrant against him was issued just days after the Provincial Prosecution Office filed the multiple rape cases, docketed under Criminal Case Nos. 7844 to 8004, with no bail recommended.
Reformina reportedly committed the sexual abuse from June to December 2019, January to May 2020, October to December 2020, and January to February this year at the house he occupied with his minor daughter and his four other younger children.
The police report did not state why the children’s mother was no longer with the family or whether she had already died or separated from her husband and left the children in his care.
Unable to bear the repeated sexual abuses inflicted by his father on his sister, the victim’s youngest brother decided to inform their grandmother, who lives just near their house, this February 2021.
Authorities immediately rescued the victim and her siblings and placed them in a safe place while the complaint was prepared.
At the police station where he was detained, Reformina reportedly expressed remorse for what he did to her daughter but the latter firmly told the police that he should pay for his crimes.