Swift justice against rapist cabbie

By Alex P. Vidal

To all taxi drivers, please pay attention.

The first known case of rape in Iloilo involving a taxi driver as the perpetrator and a female student as the victim happened sometime in 1991 and ended in bizarre murder of the rapist.

The cabbie, Felipe “Pato” Palomado, 43, of Brgy. Kahirupan, City Proper, managed to rape the victim, Sheila Mae, a 17-year-old nursing student from a Catholic university located on General Luna St., City Proper, twice in as many assaults.

The first rape happened when the victim, daughter of a Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineer, boarded his cab from Anhawan Beach in Oton, Iloilo at past 6 o’clock in the evening.

But instead of bringing her to her boarding house in Lapuz, La Paz, Palomado brought her in an isolated grassy area going to the Iloilo International Port in Loboc, Bo. Obrero.

Using superior force and intimidation, he violated her.

FEAR

Palomado succeeded in planting fear in the heart and mind of Sheila Mae, who kept the incident to herself and did not tell anybody. But after only two days, Palomado “kidnapped” Sheila Mae while she was on her way home from school and forced her to board his taxi. This time, he ravaged her inside a drive-in motel in Mandurriao district.

Unfazed, Sheila Mae mustered enough strength and sought the help of a board mate who contacted her parents. The parents, surprisingly, did not report the matter to authorities.

After two weeks, a macabre scene shocked the Ilonggos: Palomado was found dead with 27 stab wounds in the body, his neck slashed. His lifeless body was sprawled inside his cab.

Bombo Radyo reporter Abe Beatingo (now SB member of Leon, Iloilo) made a flash report to early morning anchorman Manny Gallar (now Iloilo board member): “May isa ka bangkay sang taxi drayber nasapwan sa sulod sang taxi diri sa Loboc, Bo. Obrero. Ginpatihan sang kapulisan nga biktima ini sang holdup.”(A dead body of a cabbie was found inside his cab in Loboc, Bo. Obrero. Police believed he was a victim of robbery.)

EARNINGS

Police investigators, however, were puzzled when they discovered that Palomado’s earnings were intact, including his wallet which was not taken by the “robbers.”

The big question mark that cropped up in their minds was: If he was not a victim of robbery, who killed Palomado?

Although dead men tell no tales, it was later learned from various sources and confidential testimonies of some tax drivers and neighbors who knew Palomado that a “bidding had been held for his head.”

“He had it coming,” they chorused.

Why do I still vividly recall the circumstances of this crime story that happened 20 years ago? Because Palomado, a known womanizer, who was once suspected to have also raped his own daughter, used to live in an adjacent barangay where I grew up.

We hope the cabbie and his male accomplice who attempted (was there really no rape that happened?) to rape the 19-year-old daughter of an insurance executive from Villa Matilde Subdivision recently will not suffer Palomado’s predicament.