Man gets life for rape

A Quezon City judge sentenced a man yesterday to life imprisonment for raping an 11-year-old girl seven years ago.

Judge Rogelio Pizarro of Regional Trial Court Branch 222 also ordered Dante Bantillo, 23, to pay the victim the sum of P100, 000 for moral damages. The victim was a Grade IV student at the Masambong Elementary School, when the rape took place on Oct. 26, 1994.

The judge gave greater weight to the testimony of the victim, who claimed Bantillo raped her inside a bedroom of their house at around 1:30 p.m., when she was alone.

"The court could not believe that the victim, even at 11, would make up sexual molestation charges. She would not submit herself to humiliation and tell traumatic details of her misfortune in public if there was no truth to it," Pizarro said in his four-page decision.

The girl told the court she got home from school and found that her father, a driver, her young brother and elder sister were not yet home. The victim said she went to the kitchen to prepare her lunch.

She noted that she was surprised to see Bantillo in the kitchen. The victim said Bantillo grabbed her left hand and dragged her to the bedroom where she was made to undress.

While Bantillo was raping the girl, the victim’s father arrived, forcing the accused to hide behind a cabinet. But he was caught by the girl’s father.

Bantillo denied the charge, saying he was inside the victim’s house because the latter asked him to fix a light bulb.

"It has been consistently ruled that affirmative testimony is far stronger that negative testimony especially so when it comes from the mouth of a credible witness," the judge ruled. – Cecille Suerte Felipe