Monday, June 18, 2012

A MAN faces 120 to 240 years in jail after the Court of Appeals (CA) in Cebu upheld his conviction for raping a four-year-old girl.

In another case involving a minor, an American national will face trial for human trafficking, two years after he allegedly paid another woman to bring him a minor he then had sex with.

The suspect was previously charged with violating the law that protects children against abuse and exploitation, or Republic Act 7610. This time, however, the prosecutor wants him to face trial for allegedly violating a separate law against human trafficking.

Under this law, Republic Act 9208, both the complainant and respondent cannot be named in media reports.

It was RA 7610 that prosecutors invoked in the conviction of the man in the first case. The appeals court’s station in Cebu has denied the man’s appeal to overturn his rape conviction in 2009.

The CA’s 18th Division recently upheld the decision of the Regional Trial Court Branch 14, which found Manuel Ang guilty.

Ang, a laborer, will continue to stay behind bars and serve his sentence of six terms of reclusion perpetua (20 to 40 years each). The crime was committed in Cebu City.
The court also ordered him to pay the girl’s family P300,000.

Ang had denied he raped the minor in 2001. He pointed to the doctor’s finding that the child’s genitals had no lacerations.

But the CA said that the absence of lacerations does not exclude rape nor overturn the testimony of the child.

Ang had also argued that since force and intimidation against the minor were not proven, he cannot be responsible for rape.

But sexual intercourse with a girl below 12 years old is statutory rape, according to the CA. “In this type of rape, force and intimidation are immaterial,” said the ruling.

In the alleged case of human trafficking, Prosecutor Simaco Labata said there was “very clear” evidence that a 14-year-old girl was sold to the respondent.

Labata recommended that the American be tried for violating Republic Act 9208, or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.

Section 11 prohibits any person to buy or engage the services of trafficked persons for prostitution. Bail was recommended at P10,000.

Twelve years ago, the same American was charged with two counts of child abuse and with engaging in the mail-order bride business, after law enforcers arrested him for allegedly having lewd photos of naked women in his possession.

The 14-year-old girl in his latest case, Mary (not her real name), said in her affidavit that the foreigner raped her in a hotel in Lahug in December 2009.

Afterwards, he allegedly took pictures of her while she was naked and gave her P1,000. He also told her to return the next day.

The girl told the police that she had only gone to see the American because a friend whom she was living with invited her. The woman claimed the American was her boyfriend and that he would buy them dinner at the hotel.

But when they arrived, they went straight to a room, where the man was staying. He invited them inside, kissed the girl’s friend and gave her P1,000, ostensibly to buy food.

When the woman went outside, the man allegedly locked the door and ordered Mary to take off all her clothes.

“I obeyed because I could not do anything because I was afraid and he is strong and (he) did not let me go out of the room,” said the girl.

She ended up having sex with him.

The following day, Mary went back to the hotel, as she had been instructed to do. But the police arrived and arrested the American and two of his friends. Case records show the American was already a senior citizen at the time of the alleged incident; his friends were in their 40s.

In his counter-affidavit, the American denied he met Mary. He also said that if he had sex with the girl, he cannot be liable for rape or child abuse because it was consensual.

In his two-page resolution, Labata said the fact that the American gave money to his supposed girlfriend and then to Mary shows that he may be held liable for violating Section 11 of the law against trafficking.