8 get life terms for kidnap of Tsinoy woman

MANILA, Philippines - Eight persons have been sentenced to up to 40 years behind bars for kidnapping a Filipino-Chinese businesswoman nearly nine years ago.

A Quezon City court found Ric Parcia, Roberto Ferrer, Fernando Somido, Rogelio Bibit, Emma Bibit, Raymund Fruto, Felicito Belonio Braga and Vilmor Catamco guilty of kidnap for ransom.

There were 13 men said to be involved in the kidnapping of Mae Ling Ang on Dec. 20, 2001. One of them, Joselim Arnuco, died in 2003. Four other accused – Philip Pagarido, Joel Bunales, Virgilio Corpuz and Rosendo Veloso – remain at large.

According to court records, the victim was driving her vehicle, which also carried three other persons, on her way home when they were blocked by the kidnappers’ van. The kidnappers forced her into the van and told her family to prepare ransom.

The victim was brought to a house then to a shipping container on Agham Road in Quezon City. She was rescued on the third day of her captivity, after the shipping container’s occupant told police the businesswoman was being kept in his makeshift residence.

The kidnappers never received the P600,000 ransom they demanded. The businesswoman and prosecution witnesses identified the accused as those involved in the kidnapping.

The driver of the van used by the accused to block the victim’s vehicle became a witness for the prosecution and testified against his co-accused.

The accused denied participation in the crime and claimed they were elsewhere when the businesswoman was kidnapped. They even claimed that police brought them to Camp Crame and beat them up.

“Accused’s failure to offer evidence, independently of their bare denial, of torture suggests that their defense could be either a fabrication or an afterthought. If truly the police officers mauled them, it should behoove the accused to come forward with the proper charges against the erring police officers. No criminal or administrative charges appear to have been filed by them,” Judge Ma. Theresa Yadao of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 81 said in an order dated July 27 but promulgated last week.

According to the defense, Rogelio Bibit and Emma Bibit are siblings. Emma is the partner of Somido while Parcia and Ferrer are cousins and Emma is their aunt.

Parcia and Ferrer said they went to Emma’s house on Agham Road on Dec. 21, 2001 as Parcia claimed they would go swimming. Somido and Rogelio were at the house at that time. On the afternoon of the following day, Parcia, Ferrer, Somido, Rogelio and Emma were arrested at the house by the police.

The court noted a contradiction in the statement of Ferrer, who claimed another person brought him to the house, as they were to go to Alabang on Dec. 22, 2001.

Fruto, meanwhile, claimed he was in the house of an aunt in Parañaque City on the night of Dec. 21, 2001. He was arrested in Quezon City. Braga, a resident of Quezon City, also claimed he was at home when the kidnapping happened. Catamco, on the other hand, was dismissed from the police service because of his involvement in the case.

“It is the observation of the court that private complainant Mae Ling Ang testified in a candid and straightforward manner. Her answers to the questions propounded to her were frank, spontaneous and forthright and the court had no reason to doubt the truthfulness of her testimony,” Yadao said.

“Accused Parcia, Ferrer, Fruto, Braga and Catamco were hesitant and tentative on the witness stand…Their testimonies do not have a ring of truth,” the judge added.