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Manila court convicts 6 fratmen for kidnapping of Letran student
Manila court convicts 6 fratmen for kidnapping of Letran student
No parents would want to see their children spend time in jail, much more knowing that they would stay behind bars for almost the rest of their lives.
Emotion filled an online court proceedings of a Manila Trial Court after six members of a fraternity who were all on their 20s, were convicted in connection with the kidnapping of a student of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila almost four years ago.
Convicted for a case of kidnapping for ransom were Ferdinand Dela Vega, Jr., Justine B. Mahipus, Julius D.L. Atabay, Ralph Emmanuel P. Camaya, Billy Joel R. Rocillo, and Gabriel Rabi. Most of them were Letran students.
All of them were convicted to suffer a maximum of 40 years in jail under Reclusion Perpetua penalty except for dela Vega and Camaya who were sentenced to 12 to 20 years in jail under Reclusion Temporal.
Police Lt. Col. Joan Montero, spokesperson of the Anti-Kidnapping Group (AKG), said all of accused were found guilty in the kidnapping of Denzhel Alexandre Gomez, who was then 19 years old and a student of Letran.
Montero said the court proceedings were held online under the sala of Judge Mario Malagar and were attended by the suspects who were then detained at the Manila City Jail, adding that the court likewise awarded civil indemnity to the victim.
Records from the AKG revealed that Gomez was waiting for a bus near an LRT station on August 1, 2018 when the suspects forcibly took him.
They then contacted the father of Gomez and demanded P30 million ransom. It was then that Gomez's father sought the assistance from the AKG.
One of the convicted, Atabay, even assisted the family of Gomez in the negotiation for the release of the victim but AKG investigators later found that he was working for the kidnappers. It led to the arrest of Atabay and later the rescue of the victims in Tondo, Manila two days later, and the apprehension of all other perpetrators.
Montero said the confession of one of the convicted Mahipus, helped a lot in the conviction. Mahipus also tagged Atabay as their leader.
"All the accused raised the defense of alibi and denial claiming lack of knowledge of the kidnapping," said AKG director Rudolph Dimas, for his part.
He added that the accused also claimed that what happened to Gomez was part of the initiation to become a full time member of their fraternity.
The court, however, junked all the alibis of the accused.
Dimas said that while he was sad of the conviction since the accused are all just in their 20s, he pointed out that justice must be served to the victims.