Soms duurd het wat langer

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MANILA, Philippines - In a trial that lasted more than 14 years, the Manila regional trial court (RTC) sentenced yesterday a taxi driver to life imprisonment for kidnapping a Filipino-Chinese girl and her nanny, who died of suffocation while in captivity.

In a 17-page decision, RTC Branch 5 Judge Mona Lisa Tiongson-Tabora found Monico Santos guilty of kidnapping with double homicide.

Santos "should be sentenced to death" but since the death penalty was abolished, Tabora said the "imposable penalty is only reclusion perpetua with all its accessory penalties and without eligibility for parole."

The judge sentenced Santos' cousin, Francis Canoza, to serve 10 years to 15 years in prison for being an accomplice.

Tabora also ordered the two men to pay the heirs of five-year-old Eunice Kaye Chuang and Jovita Montecino P500,000 for moral damages and P75,000 as civil indemnity.

Relief

Chuang's mother, Emily, and her two sons heaved a sigh of relief as they listened to the clerk of court read the sentence.

"I am happy. The waiting was worth it. I think Eunice will be happy in heaven. This is the best Christmas for our family," a teary-eyed Emily said.

She thanked the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order, led by founding chairman Teresita Ang-See, and the MRPO's current chairman, architect Ka Kuen Chua.

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, who was the President when the victims were kidnapped, hailed the guilty verdict. He said the cousins kidnapped Chuang and Montecino in Binondo on Oct. 17, 2000, demanded P300,000 from the girl's parents but police later found the victims' bodies in Santos' house in Malolos, Bulacan.

"The court's decision will further strengthen my resolve to keep Manila free of criminals," he said.

The Chuangs' lawyer, Sandra Coronel, said the sentencing of Santos and Canoza is significant because the trial has been running for 14 years and the cousins did not show any remorse.

"After all these years, justice has been served. I hope that this will not happen again. The judge who promulgated the case was not the judge who heard the case. She based her decision through thorough readings and review of the 14 years documents," she said.

See said Tabora was the fourth judge to handle the case, which is the "most gruesome crime that we have handled."

Chua said the MRPO maintains that the death penalty should be restored for heinous crimes such as kidnappings.

'Victims endured cruelty'

Dr. Pierre Paul Carpio of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory testified that Chuang endured cruelty and unnecessary pain, as indicated by the ligature marks and severe hematomas in her hands and feet. He said the electrical cords and nylon ropes used to bind her did not allow blood to flow from her limbs.

Carpio also said Chuang, unable to move her limbs, scratched her face on the rough surface of the walls as she was suffocating from the gag in her mouth.

He added that the autopsy on Montecino's body indicates she had been molested.

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