Monday, August 27, 2007
Judge orders man jailed for rape of student, 14
A MAN accused of raping a high school student will have to spend 20 to 40 years in jail.
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Raphael Yrastorza, Sr., also ordered Celestino Gan-ongan, to pay his victim the amount of P50,000 as civil liability.
In his three-page decision, Yrastorza cited the Supreme Court ruling in the case against Percival Gecomo, which states, “It is difficult to believe that a young, unmarried woman would tell a story of defloration, allow the examination of their private parts and thereafter permit themselves to be the subject of a public trial, if they were not motivated by an honest desire to seek justice.”
The victim, a 14-year-old and second year high school of Camp Lapu-Lapu National High School in Barangay Apas, Cebu City pointed to Gan-ongan as her perpetrator.
Swim
She narrated before the court that sometime in September 2003, after attending the morning session of her classes, she and her friends decided to skip the afternoon classes to swim at the Busay Falls.
The victims said they were swimming when Gan-ongan suddenly appeared from the bushes.
She and her classmates tried to run away but the suspect caught her, pointed a knife at her and raped her three times.
Ordeal
“This is a clear case of a group of young girls who were merely out for fun but which ended in tragedy to one of them resulting in the defloration of her virginity, though her experience was nerve-wrecking in so far as she was concerned, she lived it out to relate her ordeal before this court,” read Yrastorza’s decision. (KNT )
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 27, 2007 issue)
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