Woman says her dad, a high-ranking GovGuam official, raped her

By Johnnie Rosario

johnnie@kanditnews.com

Rachel Mantanona, 26 and now living in Hawaii, said her father raped her repeatedly between the ages of 12 and 16. The last time he raped her was in 2010. Back then, there was a statute of limitations on the rape of children.

Her father's name is Raymond Mantanona. He is the fire chief at the Guam International Airport Authority.

A few months ago, Ms. Mantanona sought the assistance of the Hawaii Police Department in filing a criminal complaint against her father with the Guam Police Department. HPD prepared Case No. 20213375, and sent it to GPD, where it became Case No. 2020-18611.

To see Ms. Mantanona tell her story, watch the video below:

Yesterday, the GPD Domestic Assault Response Team contacted Ms. Mantanona and told her the case had been closed and nothing could be done because the statute of limitations had expired in her case.

But that's not true.

Mr. Mantanona was a government of Guam employee the entire time he is alleged to have raped his daughter. According to Ms. Mantanona, he has only grown more powerful within the airport fire division and has never had a break in service with GovGuam.

That means Mr. Mantanona still is criminally liable under §10.40 of Chapter 10, Title 8, Guam Code Annotated, which reads that despite the several clauses of the statutes of limitations, when a GovGuam employee is involved:

"[A] prosecution may be commenced against a public officer or employee or any person acting in complicity with such public officer or employee for any offense based upon misconduct in office by such public officer or employee at any time while such public officer or employee continues in public office or employment or within three (3) years thereafter."

Kandit has asked the Guam Police Department why the case was not forwarded to the Attorney General's Office for prosecution on a misconduct charge, considering that Mr. Mantanona has been a GovGuam employee.

Mr. Mantanona's first cousin, Ken Mantanona, is a high ranking officer in the GPD. His brother, John "Boom" Mantanona, is a retired GPD officer.

"At the time of the incidents he would threaten that his brother who was a police office at the time, John 'Boom' Mantanona would get mad and I would get in trouble by him for saying anything," Ms. Mantanona said. "My father always told me that I would be the one to get in trouble if I told the authorities or anyone else what he was doing to me."

Boom Mantanona is part of a massive federal investigation into police corruption. He is also awaiting trial on a witness tampering case, where federal documents reveal a much-bigger conspiracy involving three drug dealers identified by the prosecution only by the initials EA, VR, and AW.

"He's the uncle we're afraid of," Ms. Mantanona said of Boom. "He's scary. It was a threat from my dad."

Ms. Mantanona suffered in silence from the time the rape started until just a few months ago. She told her mother, Rhonda Mateo, about the first incident the morning after it happened. Ms. Mantanona said her mother didn't protect her at all.

"I have been holding in this very very dark secret since I was 12 years old," Ms. Mantanona said. "My father put so much fear in me when he was molesting me. I was so scared to come forward. I also told my mother about the first incident when my father touched me and she didn’t do anything about it. I felt even more scared and felt that I couldn’t trust anyone else to tell."

She broke her silence recently, when she found out her brother and his young family moved into her father's home.

"I was concerned about his kids," she said. "I don't know if he's had other victims and I didn't want him to hurt them."

While her mother has abandoned her, she said her sister and the rest of her family now know about what happened and have been supportive of her. She wants people to know who her father truly is, and while she hopes there are no other victims, if any are out there, she hopes her story gives them courage to come forward.

"I don't want any money or to file any civil case," she said. "I just want justice. I want him to be stopped."

Neither Raymond Mantanona nor airport executive manager John Quinata have returned Kandit's call for comment.

Airport spokeswoman Rolenda Faasuamalie, however, did take Kandit's questions and said she will return our call.