Regional Trial Court Branch 16 Judge Emmanuel Carpio yesterday postponed the petition for bail filed by the camp of  Datu Naga Mitra Mangudadatu who was accused of raping a nursing student in August 2010.

The hearing was rescheduled on Feb. 27 and 28, upon the prosecution’s request.

Mario Lopez, the guardian of complainant “Victoria,” asked the court to defer the hearing due to the absence of his ward.

“I only knew yesterday (Feb. 20) that there was a subpoena,” Lopez told the court. “This did not give me enough time to inform the complainant about the hearing.”

He told the TIMES that the subpoena was sent to Paul de Vincent Dormitel in Padre Faura Street. Apparently, the victim no longer resides at the dormitel, where the alleged rape occurred.

It has been almost two years since Victoria filed a rape case with conspiracy against Mangudadatu and his cousin, identified only in court documents and police blotter as an alias Puti. Naga was arrested on Dec. 21, 2011 based on the warrant issued by Carpio early last year. Puti, meanwhile, remains at large to this day.

On the question whether bail is allowed for a heinous crime like rape, City Prosecutor Victoriano Bello, Jr. said that petition for bail may be granted if the evidence is weak and probable cause is not established.

“This petition for bail came as a surprise for us. We were also not expecting this since we knew that the first hearing will be on March 1,” Lopez said, who promised the court that he will present the victim in the next hearing.

The victim’s affidavit narrated the events as follows:

On July 31, she and two helpers were drinking beer until 11 p.m. in the dormitel’s canteen. While she was about to go to sleep, the suspect’s bodyguard, alias Ramba, approached them and asked her to join Mangudadatu for a drink inside his rented pad.

She accepted the invitation out of courtesy and after drinking a few glasses, she asked permission to leave but was allegedly prevented by the bodyguards from going out.

“Naga ordered his four bodyguards to leave the room … then he turned off the light over my protest … then I saw one of his bodyguards outside from the glass wall roll down the aluminum-steel blind, after which, Naga immediately and forcefully dragged me to his bed.”

Mangudadatu succeeded in raping her. Afterwards, Puti then proceeded to rape her at gunpoint.