7-year-old boy killed in road mishap gets justice

MANILA, Philippines - Justice has been served on Raymark Obispo, the seven-year-old boy who was fatally hit in a vehicular incident in Sta. Cruz, Laguna in June 2000.

This, after the Sta. Cruz Regional Trial Court Branch 26 found the driver of the vehicle, Francisco Suena Jr., guilty of reckless imprudence that resulted in Obispo’s death.

In a 27-page decision on April 8, Judge Jaime Blancaflor sentenced Suena to a jail term of up to four years and 61 days and ordered him to pay Obispo’s family P50,000 in civil indemnity and at least P230,000 in damages.

The circumstances taken together, Blancaflor said, form “one unbroken chain leading to the fair and reasonable conclusion that indeed, accused, to the exclusion of all others, was responsible for the death of the victim Raymark Obispo.”

The Mitsubishi Galant that Suena was driving at around 5 p.m. in Barangay Patimbao, Sta. Cruz on June 3, 2000 hit Obispo, killing him on the spot.

Blancaflor said Suena “recklessly and imprudently” drove the vehicle, causing the boy’s instantaneous death.

In his defense, Suena claimed it was impossible for him to be at the crime scene since he arrived at the house of his brother-in-law, lawyer Leopoldo Consunto, at 4:30 p.m. that day.

But the court dismissed his claim as mere alibi, saying, “Denial is inherently a weak defense as it is negative and self-serving. Corollary, alibi is the weakest of all defenses for it is easy to contrive and difficult to prove.”

No independent witness

Blancaflor said Suena failed to establish “with clear and convincing evidence” that it was physically impossible for him to have been at the scene of the crime during the commission, considering that the distance between the place of the incident and Consunto’s house in Sta. Cruz “is only about one kilometer and could be negotiated in five to 10 minutes by car.”

Blancaflor added that although Suena’s testimony was supported by five witnesses during the trial, there was no independent witness, as all of them were his friends.

The prosecution, on the other hand, presented six witnesses: Rodelio Dedala, the tricycle driver who saw Suena’s car running away from the incident; Dante Aglahi, Mauro Marasigan, Carmen Garcia, and Deorinda Obispo, all residents of Barangay Patimbao; and Dr. Milo Pempengco, who conducted the autopsy on the victim’s body.

“No ill motive could be attributed on the part of the prosecution witnesses to testify against the accused,” Blancaflor said.

He said he could not impose the next higher penalty against Suena because it was not alleged in the information that he failed to render assistance to the victim, which should have constituted a qualifying circumstance.