Coed’s kidnapper gets death sentence

Eight years ago a 19-year-old De la Salle coed was kidnapped, robbed, then shot and left for dead. The victim survived, and yesterday Agnes Guirindola wept for joy as the Quezon City Regional Trial Court meted the death sentence on one of the men who had assaulted her.

Judge Demetriou Maca-pagal ordered the execution of Venancio Roxas, 52, by lethal injection for the kidnapping and frustrated murder of Guirindola on Jan. 12, 1994.

Macapagal also ordered Roxas to pay Guirindola, 27, a total of P1.854 million in damages for her hospitalization, stolen jewelry and the repair of the vehicle that was also stolen from her.

Records of Roxas’ trial revealed that Guirindola, then only 19 years old, was driving her mother’s Nissan Sentra along Panay Avenue in Quezon City of Jan. 12, 1994 when Roxas, who posed as a Metro Manila Development Authority traffic enforcer, flagged her down.

On the pretext of citing Guirindola for a traffic violation, Roxas, his cohort Roberto Gungon and another unidentified man abducted the coed, robbed her of her jewelry and brought her to Barangay Bagong Pook in San Jose, Batangas.

At the remote barangay, Roxas and his cohorts shot her in the face and neck and left her for dead.

But Guirindola survived the vicious attack and residents of the barangay brought her to the hospital where she was revived.

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested Roxas on Sept. 11, 1995 while Gungon was arrested in Davao City and brought charges against them before the sala of the late Quezon City Judge Lucas Bersamin, who convicted Roxas in February 1995.

Roxas and Gungon’s death sentences were affirmed by the Supreme Court in March 1998 but legal maneuvers allowed Roxas to be re-tried before Macapagal.

Their executions were scheduled for Aug. 25 last year but jailed former President Joseph Estrada issued a four-month reprieve in October 2000, just as the scandal that would eventually lead to his ouster was breaking out.

The stay of execution was eventually changed into a commutation but, while sources at the New Bilibid Prison said it was definitely Estrada who commuted their death sentences to life imprisonment, the sources could not say when the commutations were made.

It was not clear what is now the status of Gungon, who remains in detention at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City, and Guirindola claims she was not given the chance to oppose the supposed commutation.

At the promulgation of Roxas’ sentence, Guirindola expressed joy that she finally received justice after eight years and pledged to monitor developments in the case to ensure that her abductors would get their just desserts.

Questions on the commutation of the death sentences seem to have led President Arroyo to order the DOJ in October last year to review the cases and study how the commutations can be reversed.

After his conviction and sentencing, Roxas’ case will automatically be reviewed by the Supreme Court which has so far affirmed the sentences of 18 convicts who are set to be executed this year.

Of the 18, 14 are rapists, two are kidnappers and one was convicted for robbery-homicide.

The convicted rapists are Serrano Nardo, Rolando Pagdayawon, Reynaldo Rebato, Alejandro Guntang, Juan Manalo, Ramshad Thasey, Ramil Velez Rayos, Nonelito Abenion, Roberto Palero, Castro Geraban, Alejo Miasco, Sandy Hinto, Ireneo Padilla and Pablo Santos.

The convicted kidnappers are Roderick Licayan and Roberto Lara while the man convicted for robbery with homicide is Reynaldo Morial.