Rape rap vs Ovilla dismissed after complainant retracts charges

Dismissed Anonas police station chief, Superintendent Francisco Ovilla, was acquitted yesterday of a charge that he raped a 20-year-old woman while in police custody.

His acquittal hinged on the retraction of the complainant, May Gines, said Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 76 Judge Monina Zeñarosa who tried the case.

"The private complainant herself made it loud and clear that she belies the charge as false and it would be impossible to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt," said the judge in her three-page ruling.

Ovilla’s defense counsel, Alan Paguia, did not bother to present evidence on Ovilla’s behalf, filing instead a demurrer to evidence. Paguia said there is insufficient evidence to convict his client. The prosecution did not object.

Gines had earlier accused Ovilla of forcing himself on her once and groping her in another occasion late last year. She had said in her first statement to police that she only mustered the courage to talk about her ordeal after the cashiered officer was linked to a drug-related bribery scandal in October last year.

She even testified that she was allegedly abused by Ovilla before the House of Representatives.

Gines had been under police custody on request by relatives who wanted her out of a youth gang. But shortly after charges of rape and acts of lasciviousness were filed against Ovilla, she changed her tune.

She said she was forced to testify falsely against Ovilla by Senior Police Officer 3 Reynaldo Resurreccion and Police Officer 3 Wilfredo Gonzales.

The two officers, it could be recalled, had blown the whistle on their superior, accusing him of freeing on a bribe of P650,000 from two Hong Kong men earlier arrested for an attempt to sell 1.5 kilograms of shabu.

Ovilla and 11 subordinates were subsequently charged in court for graft and bribery before the sala of Branch 95 Judge Diosdado Peralta. The judge had finished trying the case and is expected to come out with a ruling before the end of the year.

Gines’ retraction caught the prosecution by surprise. Despite her retraction though, prosecutors went on with the filing of charges against the police officer, believing her first statement. Under court rules, prosecutors may still file a case in court even if the witness or the complaint has made a turnaround.

A municipal judge who had the jurisdiction over the acts of lasciviousness charge dismissed it for lack of evidence. But Judge Zeñarosa rejected a motion by Ovilla’s lawyer to throw out the rape charge, saying a trial is needed to ferret out the truth.

But for all her troubles, prosecutors subsequently leveled perjury charges against Gines for her retractions. "There being no other witness presented to testify on the commission of the alleged rape, the Court is left with no recourse but to grant the motion," said Judge Zeñarosa. The court’s judgment left Ovilla with one less case to worry about. His biggest worry remains the graft and bribery charges he faces before Judge Peralta.