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Friday, August 23, 2002
Court rules death v. child murderer
By Giovannie A. Nilles
THE Regional Trial Court (RTC) imposed yesterday the death penalty on associate marine engineer Arman-do “Tata” Ruiz, for the killing of eight-year-old Ian Francis Watin more than three years ago in Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City.
Judge Fortunato de Gracia Jr. of RTC Branch 15 pointed out that even if none of the witnesses actually saw Ruiz stab Watin 54 times in the face, neck and trunk, the prosecution established its case by weaving the circumstantial evidence at hand.
The decision was welcomed with tears of relief by Clarice, Watin’s mother, and members of the Crusade Against Violence. Ruiz insisted he was innocent.
Aside from imposing the maximum penalty, Judge de Gracia also ordered the convict to pay P100,000 in moral damages, another P100,000 for exemplary damages, P50,000 for civil indemnity and P54,000 in actual damages.
Defense lawyer Higinio Hermosisima said they will no longer appeal the decision, which was read for about two hours yesterday, since it is up for automatic review by the Supreme Court.
In the 23-page decision, the court took note of the “straightforward and spontaneous” testimonies given by three witnesses, who said they saw Ruiz lead Watin by the hand, then later carry a sack on his shoulder. The sack was the same one Watin had used in gathering sand.
Last sighting
Dennis Gabisay, the first eyewitness presented by the prosecution, declared that he saw Ruiz lead Watin by the hand just as they were going home after a day’s work.
He and Ruiz were partners in gathering sand from the Kalunasan creek. Since Ruiz was still applying for a job then, he spent his time gathering sand for sale.
Ruiz whistled to the young Watin when they were leaving the place.
That was the last time Gabisay saw Watin alive.
Shortly before that, he remembered admonishing Watin and his playmates for splashing the creek’s water and soaking him and Ruiz in the process.
It took Gabisay more than a month to summon his courage and decide to come out and tell the authorities what he saw. Ruiz is the godfather of his only child.
Then there was Nestor Ponce, the second eyewitness, who testified that he saw Ruiz, his estranged brother-in-law, lead the boy by the hand from the direction of the creek to his (Ruiz’s) room at the second floor of the Ruiz residence in Lower Kalunasan.
Blood-soaked cargo
Ponce claimed he just thought then that Ruiz would simply repeat what he had done to another child months before. In the previous incident, Ruiz allegedly took a child to his room, let the boy read some pornographic materials and displayed his sexual organ to the boy.
At dawn on Jan. 31, 1999, Ponce said he heard noises from Ruiz’s room, as if someone was in a hurry packing things. He went to check and peeped through the window’s bamboo slats.
“He saw Ruiz come out of the room carrying a sack on his shoulder…Blood dripped from the sack…he went to the sala and verified if it was really blood. He found that it was really blood that dripped from the stairs up to the back gate,” the ruling read.
And then, there was Rashkin Lucob, a graveyard-shift waiter, who said he saw Ruiz carrying a sack on his shoulder and dropping this in front of the house of Jobert Aniñon about 2 a.m. of Jan. 31, 1999.
Aniñon was earlier implicated by Ponce to the killing. It was because of this allegation that the homicide police prepared a charge against Aniñon, a homosexual.
No hesitation
Ponce later said, though, that he was only forced to point to Aniñon because if he didn’t the police threatened to charge him with obstruction of justice.
“When they (three eyewitnesses) testified on the stand, they knew that they were testifying against a friend and a neighbor. Yet they were not deterred nor did they vacillate when asked to declare what they know and without hesitation, pointed an accusing finger to their village mate,” the ruling read.
Each of their testimonies, while independent, narrated the chronology of events in the killing of the boy, the court added.
The court was also convinced by the testimony of Ponce, who said he saw Ruiz, three days after Watin was killed, burn a rug while saying police investigators were “banga” (sloppy), in that they failed to find the truth.
Ponce also said Ruiz hid the bloodstains on the stairs and the floor of the house by patching this up with cement. He even helped the suspect do this.
Judge de Gracia ruled that treachery was committed when the accused “lured a child of tender years and inveigled him with whatever blandishments to go with him to wherever he led him.”
‘Overkill’
“And thereafter ended his life in such demonic fashion, graphically cutting him in 54 different ways at nighttime (and) with mindless savagery; an overkill unique and without parallel in the local annals of crime--an unspeakable carnage perpetrated on one solitary victim,” the 23-page ruling also read.
The case was first prosecuted by Assistant City Prosecutors Nicolas Sellon and Teresita Galanida, who is now a judge in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental.
In his defense, Ruiz denied all the allegations made by the prosecution witnesses, including those of his being a bisexual and a pedophile.
He and his sister, Ponce’s former partner, claimed that he was simply watching television, while Clarice and some residents in Barangay Kalunasan went around beating drums and chanting incantations while looking for the young Watin.
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