Judge Fortunato de Gracia found Armando Ruiz guilty for the brutal murder of Ian Francis Watin, and ordered him to pay P100,000 in moral damages, P100,000 in exemplary damages, P54,000 in actual damages, and P50,000 as civil indemnity.
The case took three-and-a-half years to try, and the decision two hours to read.
But when it was over, there was no doubt in the minds of the judge and those in the courtroom that Ruiz was guilty and should himself be put to death.
"Yes! Yehey! Thank you Lord!" was heard in the courtroom as Watin’s family and friends and spectators rose in their seats to applaud the decision, many with tears welling in their eyes.
Ruiz took the decision in silence.
De Gracia said the manner in which the killing was carried out showed the cold-blooded and consciously devious mind that dictated such malevolent compulsion.
"It is self-evident that inflicting 54 knife wounds on the child by a 28-year-old adult is already an abuse of superior strength," the judge said.
Watin, who lived in lower Kalunasan, went missing on the night of Jan. 30, 1999.
His mother Clarice, noting that the boy missed supper, began to search vainly with the help of neighbors and in desperation, even believed that her son was abducted by malevolent spirits.
But the banging of improvised drums failed to produce the missing boy.
It was not until about 4 a.m. the following day that the searchers came upon a gruesome discovery – the boy’s mutilated body inside a sack made damp and sticky with blood near the house of a certain Jubert Aninon, upon whom initial suspicion immediately fell.
Nestor Ponce, the common-law husband of Ruiz’s sister, told the court he saw Ruiz coming toward their house from the direction of the creek with Watin in tow.
Ponce said he saw from a distance of no more than four meters Ruiz leading Watin through the back gate and bringing the boy up to his room on the second floor.
As he was about to retire for the night with his wife in their own room, Ponce said he heard noises from Ruiz’s room, the kind that suggested something was being gathered in a hurry.
His curiosity stirred because of the late hour, Ponce said he went to the living room and from the window, saw Ruiz out of the house with a sack on his shoulder.
Noticing that something was dripping from the sack, Ponce went to investigate and was shocked to discover a trail of blood on the floor.
When Watin’s body was discovered the next day, Ponce saw the boy still wearing the same clothes he had on when Ruiz led him into the house.
He also noticed that the sack containing the body was the same one Ruiz had used to haul sand from the creek.
Ruiz had denied killing the boy, saying he was asleep in his room when the killing happened.
His sister Sonia tried to come to his rescue, testifying that her husband (Ponce) had lied in his testimony.
But another witness, Rahskin Lucob, testified that Ruiz could not have been sleeping in his room because he saw him at about 2 a.m. walking by the creek with a sack on his shoulder.
Lucob said he saw Ruiz throw the sack down in front of Aninon house, the spot where the searchers were to find Watin’s body later.
Lucob said he first hesitated to testify, fearful of retribution by Ruiz’s brothers who were regarded as toughies in their neighborhood.
But when he started to dream of the boy, crying and asking for his help, Lucob came forward. — Freeman News Service