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LEGAL STORY

Our Father, Our Rapist

Second of Three Parts

By Kathy M. Villalon

(Previous chapter: The couple Victor and Thalia Hamili of Lambunao, Iloilo were blessed with four children, 3 of which are girls. When their eldest daughter Myrna was 7 years old, her father attempted to rape her. He succeeded nine years later).

WITH the horrifying rape incident in the night before, Myrna can't help but tell somebody about it.

"Nanay, there is something I need to tell you," Myrna said to her mother while they were in the living room. Victor left early that morning for an errand.

"Is something wrong?" Thalia asked. She noticed that Myrna was very silent that morning. Her eyes confirmed that she had cried a lot.

Myrna related the whole incident to her mother, who was hurt and horrified. She cried and cried the whole day, until Victor came home that afternoon.

"How could you!!!!" Thalia slapped Victor as soon as he entered the house. "Rapist! You're an animal, how can you rape your own daughter?!!!"

Victor was taken aback. But he regained his composure and laughed. "What? That's a lie. Myrna is just dreaming."

Victor eventually won and persuaded Thalia that Myrna was just making up a story. Because of this, he was free to rape his daughter in the following years.

The year 1998 came so fast. Myrna was 21 and already working as a maid in Oton, Iloilo. All these years, she had been repeatedly raped by Victor and she can't do anything because he always threatened to hurt her if she told somebody.

One day, while Myrna was left at home with her other siblings, she was approached by Sheila.

"Manang, there is something I need to tell you," Sheila said. "I'm scared but I have to tell you about this because I can't stand it any longer ...." She added as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Tatay raped me many times," she confided. "It started when I was only fourteen years old."

"I was sleeping when he did it," Sheila related. "He went near me and removed my panty and shorts. I cried after that as I felt pain."

"Oh my God," Myrna was horrified. "What did you do?"

"The first time, I boxed and bit him, but he slapped me and raped me. It happened many times after that," Sheila continued to cry.

Myrna realized then that she wasn't the only one, when Sheila related that Zeny and Linda were also raped when they were 14 and 11 years old respectively.

When Thalia got home that afternoon, her daughters told her everything. The poor mother only had tears to shed for their fate.

The next day, Myrna, seeing that her mother didn't have the guts to do something about their fate, told her boss Ricardo de Dios who is a policeman.

Ricardo de Dios decided that Myrna and her daughters should report to the authorities what happened. Since they all decided that enough is enough, the sisters agreed.

It was on August 1998 when the sisters issued a sworn statement to police authorities about what happened to them. This was the start of the end of their father's lustful advances towards them.

Myrna, Zeny, Sheila and Linda underwent a series of physical and medical examinations by an ob-gyne, Dr. Gina Albano. It was found out that the four of them have multiple old hymenal lacerations and tags. Dr. Albano opined that these healed hymenal lacerations could have been caused by sexual intercourse. She submitted the results as well as sketches illustrating the hymnal lacerations sustained by the sisters to the authorities.

To be continued