Court of Appeals affirms guilty verdict vs 5 Bulacan kidnappers

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed the guilty verdict handed down against five men for a kidnapping in Bulacan in 2002.

The CA’s Special 5th Division upheld though with modification the decision of Judge Crisanto Concepcion of the Malolos Regional Trial Court Branch 12, in connection with the kidnapping of then 22-year-old Jimmy Ting.

Sentenced as principals in the crime were Rolando Estrella, Jay Gregorio and Ricardo Salazar. However, the CA did not agree with the court’s decision that convicts Danilo Bergonia and Efren Gascon were liable only as accomplices for having merely acted as lookouts, saying the two were also guilty as principals.

“In the case at bar, conspiracy may be deduced from the appellants’ acts that show concerted action and community of interest… Consequently, the conspirators shall be held equally liable for the crime, because in a conspiracy the act of one is the act of all,” the CA said. 

The Malolos RTC acquitted Estrella, Gregorio and Salazar though for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

In a 26-page decision penned by Associate Justice Franchito Diamante, the CA did not sustain the trial court’s death penalty against the accused and instead sentenced them to reclusion perpetua (or maximum of 40 years’ imprisonment), citing Republic Act 9346 enacted in 2006 prohibiting the imposition of death penalty. 

CA Associate Justices Josefina Guevarra-Salonga and Francisco Acosta concurred with the decision.

The CA also ruled that the appellants will not be liable for parole, and should pay their victim P100,000 in moral damages.

Ting testified in court that he was kidnapped at around 7 p.m. on Oct. 8, 2002 in Meycauayan, Bulacan while he was on his way home aboard his Honda CRV from his office at Styrotech Corp.

Ting’s family promptly reported the kidnapping to the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER), which, in turn, laid out a rescue operation.

Ting was eventually rescued and his kidnappers arrested at a checkpoint in Badoc, Ilocos Norte. The other accused fell in a follow-up operation in Rosales, Pangasinan.