ILIGAN CITY, Philippines — Armed with an arrest warrant, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Wednesday arrested a 54 year-old construction worker who was working for a project inside the Mindanao State University Campus in Marawi City.
The suspect was identified as Antonio Acopiado Barangian, Sr., a resident of Barangay Bonbon, Cagayan de Oro City.
Atty. Jam Dimaporo, chief of NBI-Iligan, said Barangian is facing charges for raping the daughter of his nephew, who was 16 years old at the time of the crime in 2016.
The accused defended saying the victim asked to be paid for one thousand pesos. “Na-demonyohan pud ko atong panahona, Maam, natumpangan gyud nako siya,” Barangian said. He admitted to the crime.
Dimaporo said, aside from the rape case, the suspect is also facing a murder case for killing his fellow security guard in Zamboanga City in 2004. But he denied it saying, it was his fellow security guard who did the crime when they were having a drinking spree.
The NBI said, the suspect was calm when they approached him and did not resist when he was handcuffed. “Nung nagpakilala tayo na NBI, at sinabi natin na mayroon siyang warrant of arrest, hindi naman siya pumalag, hindi na nagsalita at nagpa-posas naman kaagad,” Dimaporo said in an interview.
Barangian said he was aware of what he has done and he was not hiding. He just went to different places to look for work to sustain the needs of his eight children. Three of them are already married, five others are still studying. Their mother, he said, left them when she eloped with another man.-Divina M. Suson
