CABANATUAN CITY – In a rare turn of event, a 17-year-old girl from Bataan said her alleged Taiwanese rapist was actually innocent.
Backed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), Jopay (not her real name), a resident of Barangay Mabayo, Morong, Bataan said Thursday she and her mother never executed an affidavit accusing the Taiwanese national, a locator at the Subic Bay Freeport before the Olongapo City Prosecutor’s Office.
Jopay, along with her mother, VACC chairman Manuel Obedeza, Jr. and counsel were here to attend preliminary hearing for the rape, serious illegal detention, and corruption of minor charges she allegedly filed against the businessman.
The case was raffled off to the Office of Prosecutor Julius Caesar Mustard of the Nueva Ecija Provincial Prosecutor’s Office based on Regional Order 25-014 signed by Regional Prosecutor Office-in-Charge Giselle Marie Geronimo dated May 30, 2025.
The hearing was reset on Aug. 28.
In her affidavit submitted to the Nueva Ecija Prosecutor’s Office, Jopay claimed the signature in the complaint against the Taiwanese was not hers.
She said she did not personally know the respondent “at kahit kailan ay hindi ko po siya kilala o nakakausap o nakakasalamuha.”
Jopay said she did not go to Olongapo City Prosecutor’s Office on Feb. 3, 2025 and has never met Asst. City Prosecutor Lilia Elizabeth Hinanay-Escusa who supposedly administered her oath on that day.
The assailed rape complaint alleged Jopay was raped three times by the Taiwanese businessman while illegally detained for three days in his resthouse at Kalayaan Heights, Subic Freezone Port, Zambales in July 2022.
She was supposedly 15 years old then.
According to Jopay, she was only given a copy of the documents and told to memorize them after filing.
The scheme that purportedly aimed to rake P50 million from Subic Freeport locator was a handiwork of at least eight people, including a supposed relative with whom she worked as canteen employee, she named in the affidavit.
Lawyer Merito Fernandez, counsel for the businessman, vowed to unmask and file charges against a group of people from various agencies allegedly engage in a racket of manufacturing charges against foreign locators at Subic freeport for money.
Jopay, he said, was held and physically abused somewhere in Caloocan City to keep her from her mother.
He said the group has reportedly “victimized” other Subic freeport locators who allegedly gave in for fear of scandal and imprisonment several years back.
The transfer of the investigation to Nueva Ecija prosecutor, he said, was a response to their motion after he was told the complaint was already submitted for resolution even as they learned only the chargers through a vlog and a Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority security personnel.
“Makukulong ‘yung kliyente ko nang walang kalaban-laban. So, we filed a motion for inhibition, ipina-inhibit namin ang buong Olongapo City,” Fernandez said in an interview.
