A 17-year-old former New People’s Army rebel filed rape charges against an NPA leader before the Leyte provincial prosecutors’ office yesterday, four months after she surrendered to the military.
In her affidavit, the complainant, who carries the aliases Realyn and Shane, said she was raped by Paterno Opo, alias Yoyo and Dodong, in July 2018 at an NPA camp in Calubian town in Leyte while she was just 15 years old.
Opo is the NPA commander under Sub-Regional Regional Committee Levox that operates in the hinterlands of Leyte and Biliran provinces, according to Capt. Kaharudin Cadil, civil military operations officer of the Army’s 802nd Brigade.
Realyn said she was sleeping in her hammock one night when Opo woke her up and raped her.
In her affidavit, she said Opo threatened to kill her if she would tell anyone about the rape.
She also said that Opo told her she would “never see” her parents if she spoke about what had happened.
Realyn and her elder sister, who goes by the aliases Ruffa and Roselyn, surrendered to the Army’s 802nd Brigade last June. The military said Rufa was impregnated by an NPA rebel and gave birth to child she later left to the care of a childless couple.
Their parents are up to now members of the NPA and are operating in the northwest of Leyte, the military said.
Realyn said she filed the complaint because she and her sister are now under the care of the 802nd Brigade. She said the brigade helped in filing the complaint against Opo.
