Court of Appeals affirms conviction of 'demonic' father

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed the conviction of what it described as a “demonic” father who raped her teenage daughter 360 times nine years ago.

The CA’s Eighth Division described the case as the “worst” involving sexual abuse of a minor “in the annals of our jurisprudence.”

In an eight-page decision penned by Associate Justice Mario Guariña III, the CA said the Calamba, Laguna regional trial court was correct in convicting the man, a tricycle driver, by giving full weight and credence to the testimony of his daughter, who is now 22 years old.

The CA threw out the convict’s defense that if he indeed raped his daughter, how come she did not reveal her ordeal to other people despite ample opportunity to do so and instead continued to live a normal student’s life going out of the house as she pleased and interacting with friends and classmates with nary a sign of distress.

“It is on the fear springing from the initial rape that the perpetrator is able to create a climate of psychological terror numbing his victim to submissiveness and silence,” it added.

The man was earlier sentenced by the Calamba RTC to death in each of the 360 counts of rape filed by his daughter.

But the CA reduced the penalty to reclusion perpetua or maximum of 40 years in prison on each count, in view of the passage of the Anti-Death Penalty Law in 2006. As a result, the man was sentenced to a total of 14,400 years in jail.

Court records show that the man was charged in 2002 with 386 counts of rape by his daughter, who was then 14 years old.

But the lower court considered 26 of the 386 counts as mere acts of lasciviousness.

The sexual abuse happened while the man’s wife was working abroad, almost every day from Jan. 9, 2001 to May 4, 2002, except during the victim’s menstrual period or birthday or during the fiesta of Los Baños town where the family lived.