2 cops get life for rape

The Caloocan City Regional Trial Court sentenced Tuesday two policemen to life imprisonment for raping a 45-year-old woman last year in Kaunlaran Village, Caloocan.

In her 47-page decision, Branch 127 Judge Myrna Vidal found sufficient grounds to convict SPO1 Arnulfo Aure, 40, and SPO1 Marlon Ferol, 39; of rape. Vidal also ordered the accused to pay the victim P360,000 for moral and exemplary damages.

Under Republic Act 8353, the death penalty should be imposed if the convicted rapist is a police officer, but the court spared the life of the accused because of the prosecution’s "miserable failure to allege any qualifying circumstances" of the crime.

Records showed that the incident took place on Nov. 7, 1999 at about 7 p.m. inside the computer room of the Northern Police District.

Aure and Ferol had arrested the victim for allegedly maltreating two young girls, and placed her in the computer room of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) office.

The accused later asked the victim to produce P300,000 so "the charges" against her would be dropped, but the victim claimed she had no money.

The prosecution said the victim was later raped by the two policemen while inside the CIDG office.

Both the accused vehemently denied the accusations and said that it was impossible for them to rape the victim because other policemen were regularly passing the CIDG office at the time.But Vidal instead gave credence to the victim’s "credible testimony."– Matthew Estabillo