A 40-year-old truck driver and three others were arrested by the police on Tuesday for the rape-slay of his 16-year-old daughter almost two weeks ago.
Col. Jay Baybayan, Bulacan police director, identified the arrested father of the victim as Daniel Gallano, of Purok 5, Poblacion, this town.
He and his cohorts, identified as Jeffrey Beluar, 27; brothers Ronel Laurio, 29, and Joel Laurio, 31, all from Poblacion, were arrested in police hot-pursuit operations in their respective houses.
Gallano on Saturday reported to the Bustos police station that he found the body of his missing daughter in a grassy area near Bustos River in the boundary of Poblacion and Barangay San Pedro.
Police Capt. Heherson Zambale, Bustos police chief, said Gallano told them that the victim left their house around 11 p.m. on April 11, after he and his wife scolded her when they caught her kissing her boyfriend near their house.
Authorities found the victim’s body already in the decomposing stage.
The police’s backtracking of closed-circuit television footage and a witness led them to Beluar, who was hiding inside a shanty in a community in Poblacion known as ‘Banana Island’.
According to the witness, the last person he saw with the victim was Beluar. Beluar then pointed to Gallano and the Laurio brothers as his cohorts.
About two hours earlier, Beluar escaped the police who went after him in a piggery farm where he was working.
Zambale told the Inquirer that Gallano bears scratches on his body, which indicate that the victim struggled and resisted.
The chief of police said all four suspects face rape and homicide charges before the Bulacan Prosecutors’ Office.