ORMOC CITY, Leyte -- Police arrested a 44-year-old man in this city Sunday night for raping his niece 19 years ago.
Dante Formentera was attending a family gathering at their ancestral home in the city’s Juaton village when the police came to arrest him.
Senior Insp. Ian Salvador Po, city intelligence bureau chief and arresting team leader, said Formentera had a standing warrant of arrest for seven counts of rape dated May 11, 1999.
The arrest warrant was issued by Presiding Judge Fortunato Madrona of the Ormoc City Regional Trial Court Branch 35.
Po said they acted on a tip from an informant of the presence of the fugitive at their ancestral home attending his mother’s birthday celebration.
At the police detention cell, the suspect admitted raping his niece but alleged he had an intimate relationship with the victim, whom he bore a child.
The suspect said he left for Cebu and had been staying there for 19 years, but occasionally comes home.
He married and lived in Cebu where he works as auto mechanic. (PNA)
