Ex-Tinago tanod gets 4 yrs for attempted rape

CEBU, Philippines – The Regional Trial Court has convicted a former barangay tanod, who ironically was a member of the Children Justice Committee of barangay Tinago, to four years imprisonment for charges of attempted rape that was filed by an 18-year-old woman in Cebu City on September 5, 2005.

RTC Branch 10 Judge Soliver Peras, in his 11-page decision, also ordered Ignacio Conag to pay the victim P10,000 in damages on top of the years that he will be spending in prison for the offense that he had committed.

Conag was guilty of attempted rape after Peras found sufficient evidence to establish the guilt of the accused.

“The essence of acts of lasciviousness is lewd designs, that is, desiring vicarious pleasure from acts performed on the person of the victim.

The action of the accused in attempting to kiss, touch her private parts against her will are therefore lascivious acts. Accused had been identified by the complainant to be the same person who committed these lewd acts,” Peras said.

According to the girl, she was manning the store of her half sister when the suspect came to the store and asked if he could use the telephone. Since she was in the comfort room, she did not hear him clearly and did not heed to his request.

Conag again called her name. She went out of the comfort room.

The accused told her that he wanted to buy cigarettes. After giving the loose change to the accused, the latter blocked her way to the door with his arm and stared at her “sharply and menacingly.”

The accused then grabbed her to the sofa and started touching her private parts and pulled down her shorts. But the attempt of raping her was mulled as she was able to hit her on the face with her elbow.

She ran to the comfort room and locked herself up there until her aunt came and convinced her to come out.

But according to the accused, on September 5, 2005, he went to the store to use the phone. When he arrived, the girl was in the comfort room doing some laundry. He asked again if he could use the phone but the girl did not answer him.

The accused said that the girl allegedly muttered “pisti ka” to him and told him that she is in a bad mood.

He sat on the sofa located at the back of the store and dialed the phone but wasn’t able to reach his contact as the phone had no load credit. When he tried approaching the victim, the girl stood up and hit him on the shoulder and proceeded to the comfort room.

But Judge Peras gave credence to the testimony of the girl as she had positively identified him as the same guy who attempted to rape her. — Jasmin R. Uy/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)