Man gets 48 years for quadruple slay

A Manila judge yesterday sentenced a man to an accumulative 48-year prison term after he was found guilty of killing four people seven years ago in Sta. Mesa, Manila City.

Manila City Regional Trial Court Branch 54 Judge Manuel Barrios ruled that for each homicide case, accused Erwin Daliva should suffer 12 years imprisonment.

The prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence to charge him for murder, thus reducing the cases to homicide.

He was also ordered to indemnify each of the heirs of victims Jonathan Yao, 17; Joanne Yao, 19; and helpers Allen Selorio and Iris Ipa the amount of P50,000 for actual damages and P500,000 for moral damages.

The other accused in the slayings, identified as Dante Delfin, remains at large.

Barrios said the case against Delfin "shall subsist and shall remain archived until he is brought to the jurisdiction of the court."

Daliva had been charged for four counts of homicide even if he only admitted to killing the younger Yao and one of the household helpers.

"When there is conspiracy, the act of one is the act of all and all are deemed guilty for the criminal acts committed by the other," he said.

The court also found lapses in Daliva’s defense that he was forced at knifepoint by the other accused to stab the two victims.

"But accused Daliva did not have to follow Delfin’s order if he wanted to. If it’s true that he was just waiting outside the gate, accused Daliva could have run away from the scene and not have any role in the killing," he said.

Following a drinking spree on the evening of Oct. 31, 1998, Delfin and Daliva went to the Yao family residence in Sta. Mesa, Manila, where the former was a stay-in worker.

Daliva was a former worker, who was employed from May to December 1997.

When the Yaos arrived home at around 11:45 p.m., they saw the lifeless body of their son near the gate, while their daughter was found in the master’s bedroom. The helpers’ bodies were in the maid’s quarters.

All sustained multiple stab wounds.

The mother suffered a nervous breakdown and had to undergo psychiatric treatment.