Doctor, pals get death for kidnap

Kidnap victim Fritzie So leaned against a friend’s shoulder and covered her face with her hand throughout the promulgation of the kidnap-for-ransom case she filed against a former Filipino-Chinese doctor and his cohorts two years ago.

"I’m nervous," she whispered in Filipino and tapped her left hand on her chest, as if for emphasis, as the branch court clerk read the decision of Judge Eleuterio Guerrero of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court Branch 116.

So, 20, remained motionless as Guerrero’s decision was read: The judge found accused Roberto Yap-Obeles, Johnny Bautista, and Jerry Morales, guilty beyond reasonable doubt for kidnapping. Their three other cohorts, a certain Luis Miranda and two other John Does, remain at large.

In his 38-page-decision, Guerrero sentenced the three to die by lethal injection and ordered them to pay So and her family a total of P1.2 million in damages.

This was the first kidnap-for-ransom case in which the accused were meted the death penalty after President Arroyo declared an all-out-war against crime and terrorism in her second State of the Nation Address (SONA) last week.

This was also the first time that Guerrero, a heinous crimes court judge, meted out the death penalty.

Bautista and Morales, covered their faces with towels throughout the proceedings. Morales perspired heavily while Bautista stood stoically, his head bowed.

Morales’ live-in partner, Fe, cried silently at the back of the courtroom as the verdict was read.

Obeles, a former medical practitioner who later turned to sugar trading, was ordered arrested by Guerrero. The court granted his temporary liberty after he posted a P300,000 bail at the onset of the trial.

The accused and his lawyer filed late Tuesday a motion to reset promulgation, claiming that the former was sick with influenza.

But yesterday, Guerrero denied the motion and sentenced Obeles in absentia. The lawyers of all three accused failed to appear yesterday, claiming a conflict of schedule. The promulgation was delayed for an hour while the court looked for a lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO). They were later represented by counsels de oficio.

Another accused, Cesar Palapar, has turned state witness and pointed to Obeles as the mastermind and financier of So’s kidnapping. Palapar was the driver of the vehicle used to snatch the victim.

Court records showed that at around 12 noon of Nov. 21, 2001, So, her mother Lolita, and brothers Dexter and Kingsley were attending their hardware store located at 2485 Taft Avenue, Pasay, when they saw a gray Toyota Corolla and a black Mitsubishi Adventure park in front of the establishment.

Three armed men alighted and barged into the store, poked their guns at the victim’s brothers and mother. One of the men grabbed So, forced her inside the Toyota Corolla, then sped towards Baclaran in Parañaque. So was later brought to another safehouse in Barangay San Nicolas, Bacoor, Cavite.

The group demanded an P8-million ransom from their family. But Dexter So was able to negotiate for a P1-million ransom in exchange for the release of his sister, the youngest and only girl in the brood of four.

The payoff took place two days later, at exactly 4 p.m. at the Magallanes Bridge. Four hours later, So was released by her captors at the Evacom Compound in Parañaque City. So was held captive for two days and two nights.

Operatives of the now-defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), then headed by now Senator Panfilo Lacson, arrested Obeles, Bautista, Morales, and Palapar a few days after the victim was released.

All the accused denied participation in So’s kidnapping and claimed to be in different places at the time when the crime took place. They also claimed to have been mauled and forced by PAOCTF members into owning up to the crime.

But the court junked their denials and alibis, as they were positively identified by So herself.

Prosecution lawyer Sandra Coronel and So’s brothers all said that Obeles was a notorious kidnapper in Pasay.

Coronel said Obeles’ sugar trading business was merely a front and that he made most of his income from ransom money. But it was only the young So who filed a complaint against the group.

For Coronel, the most important thing now is to find Obeles. For siblings Kingsley, Walter, and Fritzie So, it was only right that all the accused were meted the death penalty.