This ‘sexual freak’ of a father gets life

BACOLOD CITY — How do you call a father who blames his daughter for his wife’s death, tells her that they should live together as lovers and later rapes her?

An "aberration" and a "sexual freak," said Regional Trial Court Judge Roberto Chiongson in his decision sentencing former Army soldier Reynaldo Emperoa Velano, 48, to reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment) for molesting his 18-year-old daughter in a motel here two years ago.

Chiongson also rapped Velano for his "distorted sense of masculine arrogance" and "enormous contempt for the opposite sex."

In one instance, the victim recalled that her father fetched her at the Banago wharf when she and her boyfriend arrived from Manila.

He told her boyfriend to take the boat trip back to Manila and then brought her to her aunt’s house. There, while changing clothes, he kissed her and fondled her breasts. When she protested, he threatened her with a caliber .38 revolver.

The rape occurred on Aug. 13, 2000. Velano told his daughter that they were going to Escalante town but instead brought her to a motel here where he succeeded in molesting her.

While he was in the bathroom, she grabbed his gun and dashed out of the room but found the gate closed. He caught up with her and grappled for the gun, causing it to go off. This alerted the guard to open the gate. She escaped and reported her ordeal to the police.

The judge described Velano’s daughter as four feet, 11 and a half inches tall and "soft and sexy." "She had sex appeal and she showed it," he added.

But "a daughter’s promiscuity can never be a justification for a father’s immorality," the judge said.