Bank exec’s killer convicted

A Parañaque City Regional Trial Court judge gave credence yesterday to a woman’s dying declaration and sentenced her assailant to reclusion perpetua or a maximum of 40 years in prison.

Judge Raul de Leon of Branch 258 also ordered accused Joel Bio Billones, 29, to pay his victim’s family a total of P342, 684 in damages.

Billones, 29, was charged with the attempted rape with homicide of Anabelle Guillermo, 38, in Parañaque on the night of Dec. 19, 2000. The victim was an assistant bank manager.

"Through her dying declaration, she was able to manage to reveal to her husband what had happened on that fateful night by describing her assailant which fits the accused," De Leon wrote in his 10-page decision.

Court records showed that Billones attacked the victim at around 10:40 p.m., several houses away from where she lives on Simon Street, Annex 41, Barangay Sun Valley. Guillermo was on her way to the Christmas party of the homeowner’s association, of which her husband, Ray, was president.

In his testimony, Ray said that as he rushed his wife to the hospital, she told him that a construction worker working beside their house attacked her. Billones, whom the victim said was wearing a yellow shirt, grabbed her by the shoulder, poked a knife at her, and forced her to go to a dark corner of the park.

She got scared, Guillermo told her husband, so she shouted for help but Billones still dragged her on. She was resisting when the accused stabbed her and shoved her onto the grass, where he undressed her. But she continued to shout, causing Billones to ran away.

At the hospital, Ray recalled, his wife asked him to take care of their three children. She was in great pain, she said, and she might not be able to make it. A few hours later, Guillermo passed away.

At least four prosecution witnesses, including a roving guard who first discovered Guillermo bleeding on the ground and a resident who saw the victim and Billones as if they were in a fight, gave the same description of the accused. The guard also saw the attacker holding a bladed weapon. A 12-inch kitchen knife was later discovered at the construction site where Billones worked.

For his defense, Billones said he was resting at his work site at the time Guillermo was attacked. He admitted, however, that he saw her earlier that night. He also said he knew Guillermo by face because she often passed by the work site as she lives only a few houses away.– Nikko Dizon