A former head of the barangay tanod brigade in San Miguel town has been sentenced to reclusion perpetua for raping his own 18-year old daughter last year.
Testimony given by the victim during the trial at the sala of Regional Trial Court Branch 43 Presiding Judge Lelu P. Contreras showed that the accused violated her four times from May to June 2020 but in a plea bargain agreement with the complainant and, he admitted his guilt for only one count of rape.
The defense counsel had requested that the imposable penalty be reduced to reclusion temporal, or about 12 to 20 years in jail, but the Court did not allow it, pointing out that the case of incestuous rape is even punishable by death penalty.
In her direct testimony, the victim, AAA, stated that prior to the first incident, her 54-year old father had been subjecting her to lascivious acts.
On May 19, 2020 at about 7 P.M., she was talking to her boyfriend about sensitive topics on the cellular phone when her father overheard her.
He accosted her and demanded to hear what they talked about since AAA had recorded it.
After listening to the recording, he slapped her and asked her why she has such behavior.
When she replied that she no longer had respect for herself, he boxed her.
AAA told her father she was behaving that way because of the lascivious acts that he had done on her.
The following day at noon, he asked her to go to the mountains to tie the dried abaca into bundles.
After finishing, he told her to go near the “tugod” (abaca hut) and to remove her shorts and panty as he would inspect her to see if she was no longer a virgin.
Shortly thereafter, he sexually abused her as she cried out of anger at her father.
The bestial acts were repeated on June 7, while they were on their way home from the birthday party of her aunt. He threatened to hit her with a stone if she would not acceded to his desire.
A week later, on June 14, he brought AAA to the mountains to get his things and raped her when they reached a certain place and again before they went home.
The victim told the Court that she did not confide to her mother or her four other siblings because she was afraid of her father. It was only after the second incident that she divulged the sexual abuse to her boyfriend and her cousins.
She said she did not tell her mother because was suffering from depression, allegedly caused by “baghat” or relapse. This made her initially decide to withdraw the cases as she wanted to spare her mother.
Aside from imprisonment of at least 30 years, the accused was also ordered during the Feb. 15 promulgation to pay his daughter a total of P225,000 as civil indemnity, moral damages and exemplary damages.