The National Bureau of Investigation yesterday filed charges for kidnapping, serious illegal detention and multiple rape against a man alleged to be obsessed with the wife of a German national whom he held captive in a San Carlos City hotel.

The charges were filed against Gilbert Escuadro, 34, before the San Carlos Prosecutor’s Office, NBI Bacolod Chief Ferdinand Lavin said.

NBI agents rescued the 31-year-old woman from a room at Skyland Hotel at about 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesday where she was being held captive, and also immediately arrested Escuadro, Lavin said.

Lavin said their investigation shows that the woman, whose name was being withheld, was raped almost two times a day, choked and beaten up from the time she was abducted on July 18 up to Wednesday when she was rescued. “We were lucky to find her alive,” he said.

Lavin said they acted on a request for help by an employee of the woman who informed them on Monday that she had been abducted at gunpoint from her house by Escuadro at about 6 p.m. on July 18.

It took the NBI two days to respond to the request for help because they had to validate that it was indeed an abduction and not just a domestic affair, Lavin said.

When we validated that she was indeed being held against her will, we launched the operation to rescue her from the hotel, he said.

He said the woman told them that had they rescued her at small house near an old bus terminal in San Carlos where her captor first held her, there could have been a shootout. That is because Escuadro had companions who could be goons or standbys armed with long firearms and .45 caliber pistols there, Lavin said.

At 9 p.m. on Tuesday Escuadro transferred the woman to Skyland Hotel where the NBI agents rescued her the next day.

Lavin said the woman had been tortured and had bruises on the arm, lips and head, and was limping. In August last year, the suspect had shot her in the stomach for refusing to go with him, but the case against him somehow did not prosper, Lavin added.

The woman will be subjected to a medical examination, he said.

Lavin said Escuadro had faced drug raps in the past.

“OBSESSED”

The woman said she had known the suspect for a long time as they were neighbors when they were growing up. He was courting her, but she turned him down.

She said she married a German national who is now 42-years-old, but Escuadro, who was also married, continued to pursue her.

She claimed that last year he shot her in the stomach, saying that if he could not have her, he did not want anyone to have her, either. This resulted in her having difficulty in walking.

She said Escuadro would take her from her house and force her to have sex with him and she went with him because he threatened that if she refused he would kill members of her family.

When he recently learned that her German husband was coming back he made her eat the ticket of her husband, and abducted her from her house at gunpoint.

She was beaten up and raped and she could not escape as he closely guarded her, the woman said.

The woman runs a buy-and-sell business and owns a truck that the man tried to sell, Lavin said.

”LOVERS”

But Escuadro, who is detained at the NBI Bacolod cell, denied that he abducted, raped and beat the woman.

We were live-in partners for two years, would you call our having sex while living together rape? he asked.

It was the woman who asked him to sell her truck because she told him she had many debts, he said.

He also denied that he shot the woman. He said the family of the woman did not like him because if their affair continued the money the German was sending to her would stop.

Escuadro claimed the brothers of the woman tried to shoot him last year and in a scuffle she got hit in the abdomen.

The brothers of the woman had also made several attempts on his life in the past, he added.

NO TORTURE

He also said he did not torture the woman, and that the bruises on her arm were from the grip of his hand when he helps as she attempts to walk, which she had been unable to do without help since she was shot last year, he said.

The bruises she had on her face and head were caused by her falls while attempting to walk without help, he claimed.

He also did not rape her twice a day, he is not maniac, he added.

Escuadro denied that he was a drug user, saying it was the watcher of the woman’s house who was using drugs.

He only learned recently that the German husband of the woman was coming. While they were living together she hid from him the fact that was still communicating with her husband, he said, adding that he has been separated from his wife since 2005.

She is afraid because her whole family depends on the German for their income, he also said.

Only the woman whom he calls “Beh” for baby, can set the record straight about their relationship, he said.

I wanted to leave her before but she told me to stay, he said.

If he could send his Beh a message, it is that she should stand by what she knows is the truth and not be dissuaded her family, Escuadro said.

I will not bother her anymore, I hope she will be happy in her new life with her husband, he added.

HUBBY ARRIVING

The woman, however, maintained that she had no interest in Escuadro who constantly threatened her if she did not do what he wanted.

She claimed the police had done nothing to help her despite complaints made.

Her German husband is expected to arrive soon to bring her to safety, she added.*CPG

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