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Friday, October 28, 2005
Lethal injection for pa who raped his daughter
By Grecar Nilles
CEBU CITY -- A construction worker from Minglanilla, Cebu failed to convince the court that he only mistook his 10-year-old daughter for his wife when he allegedly raped her.
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 24 Judge Olegario Sarmiento Jr. sent Ricardo Cabiles Sr., a father of six, to the death chamber for the crime.
Cabiles is the second father in four months Sarmiento sentenced to die by lethal injection for raping his daughter.
Last June, Sarmiento also imposed the maximum penalty of death on a Talisay City resident for raping his 15-year-old daughter.
The cases have several similarities.
Both victims are daughters, the rape happened more than once and all during the absence of their mothers.
The victims are also minors who bore a child from the abuse.
Cabiles was also ordered to pay the girl, who is now 19 years old, P75,000 for civil indemnity, P50,000 for moral damages and P25,000 for exemplary damages.
Not one of Cabiles’ family members attended Thursday’s promulgation.
Cabiles testified earlier that he only mistook his daughter for his wife, but on Thursday, he said his daughter consented.
Cabiles was charged with seven counts of rape for allegedly molesting his daughter for more than four years, starting in 1996.
However, he was convicted only of one count, the most recent incident, because the prosecution failed to specify the dates of the other rape incidents.
The testimony of his son, who saw him molest his daughter on Jan. 26, 2001 in their residence in Napo, Guindarohan, Minglanilla, Cebu, secured the conviction.
“Aside from observing the allegations of (the daughter) to be sincere and truthful, it is corroborated by the testimony of (her brother). The child born to (the daughter) is the living witness of what accused had done to his daughter,” Sarmiento said in his ruling.
Since Cabiles has been meted the maximum penalty, his case will go through an automatic review before the Court of Appeals, not with the Supreme Court, as previously practiced.
If the appellate court upholds the lower court’s decision, Cabiles will join some 1,000 inmates, including more than 40 women and children, in death row.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lifted a three-year moratorium on the executions in 2003 but has since granted reprieve to several death row inmates scheduled for execution.
Cabiles earlier said that having sex with his daughter was not intentional because he thought she was his wife. The child supposedly wore his wife’s housedress at that time.
He said he even immediately asked for forgiveness from his daughter. But the court did not believe him.
“At any rate, accused admitted having carnal knowledge with his daughter albeit once. His pretension that he had mistaken the victim to be his wife because he was too drunk is too flimsy to be sustained by this court,” the ruling read.
“In fact, this court believes that he purposely intoxicated himself to increase libido, making his daughter as the object of his sinister and lewd desire. This jibes with the testimony of the victim that every time her father raped her, he was drunk,” the ruling further said. (Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(October 28, 2005 issue)
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