By Perfecto T. Raymundo, Jr.
MANILA, (PNA) — The Court of Appeals has affirmed the guilty verdict handed down by the Manila Regional Trial Court on five men who robbed and kidnapped a Filipino-Chinese businessman in 2003.
In a 30-page ruling promulgated on Sept. 2, 2013 and written by Associate Justice Eduardo Peralta, Jr., the CA’s 12th Division “affirmed the judgment…which adjudged the guilt of the accused [Reynante Manzanero, Mario Tanyag, Arthur Fajardo, Mario Evangelista, and Angelito Evangelista] for kidnapping and serious illegal detention and sentenced them to suffer the corresponding penalty, with forfeiture of the vehicle, and to pay cost[.]”
Records of the case showed on Nov. 23, 2003, Manzaner and his men kidnapped the Filipino-Chinese businessman after playing mahjong with some of his friends at the Metropolitan Building in Ermita, Manila.
Buntong Chua claimed the suspects introduced themselves as National Bureau of Investigation agents and brought him in a safehouse in Tanauan, Batangas.
The victim was able to escape from the suspects and sought the help of authorities after he was held captive for 37 days.
Manzanero’s group demanded ransom from Chua family but they were not able to give the money to the abductors when he managed to escape from his abductors.
The RTC found accused Manzanero, Tanyag, Fajardo, and Evangelista guilty beyond reasonable doubt for the felony of kidnapping and serious illegal detention with ransom, and in conformity with law and were sentenced to suffer separate prison terms of reclusion perpetua.
However, Angelito Evangelista was penalized with a lighter sentence of a maximum of 14 years and eight months in prison because his participation only came in after the victim was abducted and held under detention for more than a month.
In upholding the guilty verdict against the accused for the said crimes, the CA said “the act of posing as NBI agents by people clad in NBI uniforms who also forcibly shoved [Chua] to board a car indicated a concerted effort on the part of the appellants to abduct the victim.”
However, the CA reversed the convictions of the accused in another charge “for robbery due to the prosecution’s failure to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.”
“Consequently, we delete the award of P50,000 allegedly representing the value of the victim’s personal belongings,” the CA ruling said.
The CA said there was want of evidence showing the concerted acts of appellants that would indicate a common intent on their part to commit robbery.
Concurring with the ruling were Associate Justices Vicente Veloso and Nina Antonio-Valenzuela.