Shoemaker gets 80 years for raping co-worker's daughter

MANILA, Philippines - A shoemaker was sentenced yesterday to 80 years’ imprisonment for raping his co-worker’s daughter twice in Marikina City six years ago.

Marikina Regional Trial Court Branch 272 Judge Felix Reyes ordered Elmer Mendez to indemnify the victim, who was 13 at the time of the rapes, P100,000 each for civil and moral damages.

Court records show that rapes occurred on June 27, 2005 and Aug. 22, 2005 in a shoe factory in Marikina.

The victim went to visit her mother at the factory to ask for some money. Since her mother had none at the time, the girl decided to leave. However, the girl said Mendez grabbed her before she could leave and brought her to the employer’s office, where he raped her.

Mendez threatened the victim with bodily harm should she tell her mother about the rape.

The second attack happened in the restroom, when the girl again went to the factory but her mother was not around. Mendez told the victim she should not have sex with anyone but him “because he owned her.”

In the 22-page decision, Reyes dismissed Mendez’s alibi and gave weight to the girl’s “vivid” testimony.