Death for rapist of own daughter

A construction worker from Minglanilla who repeatedly raped his own daughter over a period of five years will be made to die for his crime, by way of lethal injection.

An emotionless Ricardo Cabiles Sr., clad in orange prison t-shirt, stood calmly before the court interpreter as she read out his sentence to him.

He showed no remorse for his crime, telling a television reporter only that he wished his sentence had been lower.

Cabiles was charged with seven counts of rape but Regional Trial Court judge Olegario Sarmiento Jr. convicted him on only one count, that of the rape that occurred on January 26, 2001.

Cabiles started raping his daughter in 1996 when she was 10.

The court, however, could not find him guilty beyond reasonable doubt on the other six cases of rape because the daughter, now 19, could not place exact dates on the six other times when her own father allegedly feasted his lust on her.

Sarmiento said he cannot consider the six other alleged incidents of rape due to the absence of specific evidence on how and in what manner the sexual attacks took place or were carried out by the accused.

" Without the specific dates mentioned, the accused cannot put up a valid defense thereto since he cannot possibly account for all the days of his life that passed, " Sarmiento said.

But Cabiles was pinned down on the January 26, 2001 sexual attack when one of his other children testified having actually seen his father raping his sister.

Ricardo Cabiles Jr. told the court that on that fateful night he heard his sister crying out for help and had come running to her room.

Flicking the lights on, there he saw his father stark naked, consumating his lust on top of his sister.

Ricardo Jr. said he had been unable to do anything and that the following morning, his father threatened to kill him if he breathed a word of what he saw that night.

Ricardo Sr. eventually confessed having raped his own daughter, but only on the night of his birthday on August 23, 2002.

That night, Cabiles said he came home drunk after drinking with friends to celebrate his birthday and mistook his daughter for his wife, claiming she was wearing her mother's clothes at the time.

He said he was shocked to find it was his daughter sleeping beside him, wearing her mother's duster, when he awoke the following morning.

The court rejected his plea that the rape was not intentional, calling it too flimsy to be sustained.

" This court believes that he purposely intoxicated himself to increase libido while 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, " Sarmiento said.

The wife of Cabiles worked as a stay-in domestic helper at the house of a foreigner and managed to come home only on weekends to bring food for the family.

Republic Act 7659 or the death penalty law was enacted in December 1993 and the first person to be put to death under it was Leo Echegaray, who was convicted in 1999 for the rape of his stepdaughter.

Enacted ostensibly to deter heinous crimes such as rapes, the law appeared to have failed in its intention.

From 1994 to 1995, the number of persons on death row increased from 12 to 104.

From 1995 to 1996, the number rose 182. In 1997, death convicts reached 520 and in 1998 they totalled 781. As of December 31, 1999, a total of 936 death convicts were at the National Bilibid Prisons.

President Arroyo has imposed a moratorium on the carrying out of the death penalty, largely under immense pressure from the influential Roman Catholic Church.

Former senator Ernesto Herrera, one of the authors of the death penalty law, said the refusal of government to continue carrying out the executions may have led to vigilanteeism and extrajudicial summary executions.