Supreme Court upholds guilty verdict on DLSU student's kidnapper

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the conviction of a man found guilty of kidnapping and attempting to kill an engineering student of De La Salle University (DLSU) in Manila in 1994.

In a unanimous 23-page decision, the High Court upheld the verdict handed down by the Quezon City regional trial court in September 2000 against Venancio Roxas for the kidnapping of Agnes Guirindola.

“We have painstakingly examined the records of the case, particularly the testimonies for the prosecution and the defense. However, after much examination, we find no persuasive much less compelling reason to depart from the findings of the trial court,” stated the ruling penned by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta.

The Court also found Roxas guilty of carjacking and theft.

However, it modified the sentence from death to life imprisonment “without possibility of parole” in line with Republic Act 9346, the anti-death penalty law, which prohibits the imposition of the death penalty.

It also cut the amount of damages awarded by the lower court to Guirindola from P1.5 million to P180,000, representing civil, moral and exemplary damages.

Court records show that Guirindola, then 20 years old, was abducted by Roxas and another man, Roberto Gungon, while she was driving along Panay Avenue in Quezon City at about 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 12, 1994. The victim was shot in the face and abandoned at a grassy lot in Batangas.

The two men brought her to Batangas and forced her to drink a glass of soda. She later felt dizzy and fell asleep. When Guirindola woke up at about 10 p.m., the men had already taken the money from her wallet as well as the jewelry she was wearing.

In her testimony, Guirindola said she needed to answer the call of nature, and Gungon led her to a grassy area. She had just finished relieving herself when she saw “white sparks,” fell down and lost consciousness.

Guirindola said she did not realize she had been shot until after she regained consciousness and found blood oozing from her face and neck. She said she walked for about a kilometer and followed a light that led her to a small house where she sought help.

Gungon was also convicted for the same crime and sentenced to death by lethal injection. His execution was upheld by the SC in 1998, only to be stopped by the passage of RA 9346. At that time, Roxas was still at large.

The two convicted kidnappers are detained at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.