Batangas trader’s abductors get death

A Quezon City regional trial court judge sentenced to death yesterday eight men who were found guilty of kidnapping a Chinese businessman in Batangas seven years ago in exchange for a ransom of P2.6 million.

In a 20-page decision, Branch 81 Presiding Judge Ma. Theresa Yadao meted the death sentence to eight of the nine respondents found guilty of kidnapping for ransom.

Clerk of court Joy Fernandez read the decision in Filipino to Felicisimo Laygo, Edgar Alvarez, Almario Abrasaldo, Rufo Astero, Dominador Torano and Manolito Sandoval, who were present during the sentencing.

Also meted the death penalty were Jaime Moog and Primo Arena. Moog, the mastermind, is still at large after he escaped from jail in February 2003. Arena is already detained at the National Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City after having been found guilty in another kidnapping case.

"Kamatayan ang hatol ninyo (Your sentence is death)," Fernandez told the convicts who were standing before the court.

Juanito Moreno, one of the accused, was acquitted for lack of evidence and ordered released from jail.

One of the convicts protested, saying he was innocent, but Yadao told him the Supreme Court would automatically review his case. Yadao also said it pained her to hand down the death penalty and that this was the fourth time she has done so in her nine years as RTC judge.

While thousands sit on death row for heinous crimes such as kidnapping or rape, few prisoners in the Philippines are executed. The last execution was in 2000 under former President Joseph Estrada.

According to court records, the group kidnapped Channie Tan Son in the afternoon of July 14, 1999 from his hardware store in Barangay Talahiban, San Juan, Batangas and demanded P10 million from Son’s relatives.

The kidnappers subsequently lowered their ransom demand to P2.6 million, which Tan Son’s relatives paid to obtain his release eight days after he was kidnapped.

Follow-up operations conducted by the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force resulted in the arrest of the suspects, who were later positively identified by Tan Son in a police lineup.

Yadao dismissed the suspects’ claims that they were in separate places when the kidnapping occurred, so they could not have been responsible for the crime. The suspects also claimed they were tortured while in police custody.

"The in-court identification made by Channie himself and the other two prosecution witnesses is more than sufficient to prove the actual participation by accused," Yadao said.

Two more suspects, Romano Moog and another known as "Alias Pusa," were arrested recently in connection with the kidnap-for-ransom case and will undergo a new trial. Romano Moog was initially identified by Tan Son as one of the men who entered his hardware store and kidnapped him.

Teresita Ang-See, of the Filipino-Chinese Kaisa Foundation, lauded the court decision and urged law enforcement agencies to intensify the manhunt for Moog.