BANAUE, Ifugao – More than a year after the body of US Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell was found in a ditch here, her confessed killer was convicted of her murder and meted a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison without parole.
Juan Donald Duntugan, a native of La Trinidad, Benguet, was also ordered to pay at least P39 million in damages to the family of the 40-year-old Campbell.
Of the amount, P75,000 is civil indemnity for the death, $12,600 or P564,100 for funeral expenses, $871,676 or P39 million for her loss of earning capacity, P75,000 for moral damages, and P25,000 for exemplary damages.
Duntugan stood emotionless before Judge Ester Piscoso-Flor in the jampacked courtroom of the Ifugao Regional Trial Court branch 34 yesterday.
However, when the court interpreter read the verdict to him in his native language, Duntugan’s face changed to a pained grimace.
Campbell’s elder sister Geary Morris said after the reading of the verdict that she harbored “no bad feelings” against the people of the province or the country, adding that it was “just a case of a man who made a bad decision.”
US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said she was “glad the case ended… for all of us it’s important now to move on.” She noted the arrival of a new group of 64 Peace Corps volunteers who will spend two years in the country.
In her 36-page decision, Flor said she took into consideration the aggravating circumstances of abuse of superior strength and treachery as factors in convicting Duntugan of murder instead of homicide.
“An attack made by a man with a deadly weapon upon an unarmed and defenseless woman constitutes the circumstance of abuse that superiority which his sex, and the weapon used in the act afforded him, and by means of which the woman was overcome and rendered unable to defend herself,” read the decision.
Flor said the fact that Campbell had sustained at least 15 injuries in different parts of her body showed clearly that Duntugan had employed abuse of strength.
“The sudden and unexpected attack of Duntugan on Campbell, even granting that he mistook her for a neighbor with whom he had a grudge, was proof of the aggravating circumstance of treachery,” read the decision.
In Manila, the US embassy welcomed the conviction of Duntugan.
“I’m glad the case ended,” Kenney said after the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of new facilities at the US embassy.
“I think for all of us it’s important now to move on. Julia Campbell is someone we’ve lost and won’t get back. Our Peace Corps is trying to continue the work that meant a lot to her.”
The US embassy said the new group of volunteers arrived to work with the US Peace Corps development programs in education, coastal resources management, children, youth and family.
After three months of intensive language and technical training, the new volunteers would spend two years living and working in Philippine communities in Luzon and the Visayas, the US embassy added.
The US embassy said the 64 new volunteers comprise the 266th group of US Peace Corps Volunteers to serve in the Philippines since 1961.
The volunteers underwent training on how to operate safely in barangays where they would be assigned, the US embassy added.
‘No bad feelings’
While the court interpreters read for nearly two hours the decision giving the ghastly details of how Duntugan had brutally killed Campbell with pieces of rock and wood, her elder sister and colleagues from the US Peace Corps could not help but be teary eyed.
“I have no bad feelings against the people of Ifugao, Banaue or Batad village and the whole Philippines,” said the 43-year-old Morris, holding back her tears.
“This was just a case of a man who made a bad decision for him, for his family and for us.”
She looked forward to coming back to the country and bringing her friends so that they could see the beautiful scenery of Banaue, Morris said.
After giving interviews to media here, Morris, along with US Peace Corps officials, left Banaue aboard a vehicle with diplomatic plates.
Duntugan whisked off in handcuffs
After the verdict was read, Duntugan was quickly handcuffed and whisked out of the courtroom into a van of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to be brought back to jail.
Duntugan’s wife and close relatives also hastily left the court in tears after the trial.
The Duntugan couple has three children, including a less than one-year-old baby who was born during Duntugan’s trial.
Duntugan’s lawyers said that they will appeal the verdict to the Court of Appeals.
On the other hand, Dean Reynaldo Agranzamendez Sr., counsel for the Campbell family, called the verdict a “triumph of justice.” — WIth Pia Lee-Brago