Man gets life term for rape

The Caloocan City Regional Trial Court sentenced Tuesday a 31-year-old man to life imprisonment for raping a 15-year-old girl inside a cemetery six years ago in Bukid Area, Caloocan.

Ricardo Pascual, of Phase 7-B, Bagong Silang, Caloocan, was also ordered to pay the victim P125,000 in moral and exemplary damages.

In his six-page decision, RTC Branch 128 Judge Silvestre Bello Jr. found sufficient grounds to convict Pascual of rape.

Court records showed that the incident took place on July 31, 1994 at about 10 p.m. inside the Bagong Silang Cemetery.

The victim was walking alone through an alley when the accused blocked her path and threatened her with an ice pick. Pascual then dragged her inside the cemetery and raped her on top of a niche.

The victim, now 21, rushed home after the sexual attack and reported the ordeal to her parents. They later accompanied her to the police station.

For his part, Pascual vehemently denied ever raping the victim and said that the girl was his girlfriend. He added that he was just taking care of his chickens at the time.

Judge Bello, however, junked his defense and said the accused could not prove that the victim was indeed his girlfriend.

Bello also decided that it was not physically impossible for Pascual to commit the offense.

The court instead gave credence to the testimony of the victim since she would not "expose herself and her family to public aspersions if she was not motivated to seek justice." – Matthew Estabillo