More than four years after the case was filed in court, one of the two accused of rape with homicide over the sexual abuse and subsequent death of a 19-year-old Grade 12 student in Virac has been arrested in Taytay, Rizal.
Last April 18, 2024 at 1:30 PM, personnel of the San Miguel police station led by Pat. Kristoffer Dan Teves Garcia and operatives of the Taytay police station in Rizal province apprehended Jonard Vargas Bonaagua, 33, a native of Balatohan, San Miguel Catanduanes, while in his temporary residence at Block 60, sitio Pangulo, Brgy. San Juan Floodway I in Taytay, Rizal.
The arrest was made on the basis of a warrant issued by then Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 42 Presiding Judge Genie G. Gapas-Agbada on Oct. 25, 2019 against Bonaagua and another accused, Jobert Manibale, for the crime of rape with homicide and docketed under Criminal Case No. 6858 with no bail recommended.
Allegedly a supporter of the “Communist Terrorist Group (CTG) and included in the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Regional Most Wanted List with a reward of P130,000.00 for his capture, Bonaagua was reportedly working as a condiment agent and seller when apprehended.
As of presstime, the police were preparing documents for his commitment and return to the RTC Branch 42.
The police report did not specify how he was traced to his Taytay location.
It may be recalled that Virac police station filed the charges against the two suspects on Jan. 8, 2019, four days after the victim, Vicky Maliñana Samson, died at the Eastern Bicol Medical Center (EBMC).
Her brother brought her to the hospital on Dec. 25, 2018 due to continuous bleeding since her alleged rape two weeks earlier.
The official death certificate signed by the attending physician identified the cause of death as anemia due to the bleeding from a laceration in her vaginal wall caused by sexual assault.
Shortly after the victim’s demise, the Virac police implemented a news blackout on the case but the Tribune learned from a reliable source that the victim’s death was linked to a mysterious “clan” organized and ran through text messages.
The informant said that the two suspects, both abaca strippers from Balatohan, San Miguel town, were members of the unnamed group, along with the girl hosting the birthday party in San Isidro Village which the victim attended on Dec. 8, 2018.
A teenage member of the group reportedly told the police that any clan member could nominate anyone for membership even without his or her knowledge. The prospective member is then sent a “membership form” through text which he or she then fills up and sends back to the text sender.
All throughout the exchange of messages using cellphones, the members allegedly used code names instead of their real names.
Even during the group’s “meet ups” or gatherings during Sundays where they drank intoxicating liquor, only code names were used by the members, most of whom were in their teens with a number of them in their 20’s.
It was during the 18th birthday of a “clan” member at the SIV relocation site that the victim, a student of the Catanduanes National High School (CNHS), was invited by her best friend, a Grade 9 student at the same school, that Dec. 8, 2018 at about 5 P.M.
Accounts of the incident claim that Vicky was persuaded to drink during the party. When the already intoxicated girl begged to go home at 3 A.M. the following day, Bonaagua, who was her best friend’s former boyfriend, and Taperla volunteered to take her home to San Juan.
The suspect made her sit in the middle of the motorbike while the other suspect occupied the rearmost portion to prevent her from falling off during the ride.
However, instead taking her home, they brought her to the house of Bonaagua’s auntie in San Roque where she was sexually abused by Bonaagua. The victim reportedly could not resist as she was too weak and felt dizzy.
She was only able to come home after the suspect called up her best friend at 8 A.M. and asked her to fetch the victim in San Roque. The friend brought Vicky home to her parents but left without telling them anything.
In the days after the incident during which she continued to attend classes, Samson allegedly kept the details to herself despite her continuous bleeding and only confided to her best friend, asking the latter to keep it a secret.
It was only on Christmas Day 2018 when her brother Victor arrived that she revealed what happened to her. She was immediately brought to EBMC where she succumbed to her injuries on January 4, 2019 after celebrating the New Year with her family at the hospital room.