MANILA - As many as seven guards at a centre for deportees in Sabah allegedly raped a 13-year-old Filipina before she was sent back to the Philippines, a top justice official said today.

Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said the girl had pointed to pictures of about seven guards as her alleged rapists in the detention.

The rape case as well as other allegations of ill-treatment had sparked popular outrage in the Philippines when Malaysia deported thousands of Filipinos recently as part of a crackdown on illegals.

A three-member Malaysian probe team arrived here yesterday to look into the rape allegations.

Body marks

"The girl was shown pictures of the guards and she was able to identify some of the perpetrators.

"It turned out that the earlier assessment that there were only three guards involved is inaccurate. In fact, she pointed to, I think, about seven," Perez said.

The alleged perpetrators abused her several times, Perez said, worsening her trauma.

He added that the girl could identify the body marks of the perpetrators.

The girl may have to return to Malaysia for further identification.

The Malaysian probe team was dispatched after Philippine President Gloria Arroyo wrote to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad asking him to act on the case.

Malaysian father

Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Lauro Baja said separately that the girl may have a Malaysian father and could qualify for Malaysian citizenship.

"We are not yet definite whether she is a Filipino citizen or not," Baja said.

"It may not affect the case legally but it may give a different outlook to the Philippines' advocacy of her case," Baja said. AFP