The five and eight others whose names are not known and described under fictitious names, were charged with kidnapping for ransom and serious illegal detention.
In his 14-page decision, Judge Floro Alejo also ordered Renato Sulit and his father Rufino, Nestor Andaya, Edwin Novales and Rolando Ranola to pay sisters Sheryl, 17, and Sharleen, 18, both surnamed Tangcanco, whom the group abducted in 1999, P500,000 each and P2 million to the victims’ father as moral damages.
The court ruled that the confluence of the circumstances in this case sufficiently proved beyond reasonable doubt the existence of conspiracy among the accused in the kidnapping of the victims and in the extortion of ransom money from their parents.
"Note that the penalty shall be death where kidnapping or detention was committed for extorting ransom money from their parents. The death penalty may in a sense be considered cruel but it is not an unjust, excessive or unusual punishment. There is a need to impose this extreme penalty to secure society against the threatened and actual evil," the court ruled.
During trial, Sharleen testified that on July 20, 1999, at about 8:30 in the morning, she and sister Sheryl were on board their blue Mitsubishi Lancer which she was driving on their way to school.
Not long after leaving their residence in Karuhatan, their path was blocked by three men armed with handguns. One pushed her into the back seat. Sheryl was squeezed between two of the suspects in the front passenger seat and one of the men drove the car. One of the suspects asked who their parents were and took down their phone numbers. In Ugong, Valenzuela, they transferred to a waiting white taxicab with three others on board, one identified as Novales.
After being driven for three hours, she knew they were in Cavite because she recognized the residence of then governor Bong Revilla’s. They stopped upon reaching Silang, Cavite where they were held for three days.
On July 23, peeved at the failure of their father, Santiago, to come up with the money, the kidnappers threatened to kill one of them and send the body to their father. On July 25, they were told they would be released as Santiago had already paid the ransom. They later boarded a passenger jeepney to Alabang, where they were given P500 for taxi fare and were abandoned by the suspects. They hailed a cab and told the driver to take them to the Grand Boulevard Hotel in Roxas Boulevard where they called home and were later reunited with their family.
Although happy about their release, the victims said they were still afraid because of the suspects’ threat that they would come back and get them again.
Police gathered that negotiations resulted in a P2 million ransom. The victims’ parents told police investigators that they agreed to pay the money, fearing for the lives of their two daughters.
Police quickly arrested Novales and Ranola, who squealed on the whereabouts of their cohorts and their safehouses. The remaining three others voluntarily surrendered after learning that the police had already collared Novales and Ranola.