Civil engineer, accomplice get 30 years in prison for 2009 kidnapping

MANILA, Philippines — A Quezon City court has sentenced a female civil engineer and her accomplice to at least 30 years of imprisonment for going to the extreme of kidnapping and detaining four years ago a tricycle driver whom they tried to compel to testify against a group of robbers.

Quezon City regional trial court branch 80 Judge Charito Gonzales found Francia Regachuelo and Jorge Laguno guilty of the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of Christian Philip Galera and meted on them the penalty of reclusion perpetua.

This was despite Regachuelo’s claim that she was a victim of robbery in 2005 and had only sought out her neighbor Galera to act as witness against the people who robbed her and to help her recover the stolen items.

According to the information filed in court against them, Regachuelo and Laguno conspired on January 11, 2009, to kidnap Galera while he was waiting for passengers at the tricycle terminal on Molave Street in Project 3. Laguno introduced himself as a policeman and boarded Galera’s tricycle and asked him to go to K-7th Street in Barangay (village) Kamias where Regachuelo was waiting inside a blue Mitsubishi Pajero.

When they arrived at K-7th Street, Galera was pushed inside the sports utility vehicle and was brought by Regachuelo and Laguno to Sta. Rosa town in Laguna. The tricycle driver was then told to get off the SUV at a grassy lot where he was stabbed by Laguno. Galera, though wounded, was able to escape and seek help from a resident in the area while Regachuelo and Laguno fled.

In her defense Regachuelo said that she only drove to K-7th Street to meet up with Laguno who sent her a message that he was with Galera. Inside her SUV, she testified that she personally asked Galera to be a witness to the 2005 robbery and identify the perpetrators. The tricycle driver did not agree to her request saying that his relatives would get mad at him if he testified.

She claimed Galera asked her to drive to Pasig City so they could meet his cousin who was one of the robbery suspects but the meeting did not materialize. She alleged they proceeded to Sta. Rosa in Laguna to meet another robbery suspect and Galera told her to drive to a grassy lot in the town.

Regachuelo claimed that the two men with her started arguing when they reached the grassy lot prompting her to ask them to get out of her car. Laguno and Galera then came into blows and she watched them wrestle. Laguno then returned to the SUV and they drove back to Manila, leaving behind the tricycle driver.

Laguno denied forcing Galera to board Regachuelo’s Pajero claiming that he and the tricycle driver were long-time neighbors. Galera, he said, had agreed to meet with Regachuelo and had boarded the SUV voluntarily. He claimed that the tricycle driver demanded P150,000 from Regachuelo in exchange for information.

When Regachuelo expressed outrage at the demand, Galera allegedly cussed, prompting Laguno to punch him. They then engaged in a fistfight where the tricycle driver allegedly drew a knife and they struggled for its possession. As a result the knife fell on the ground and Galera fell on it, causing the blade to cut him in the back.

In her 12-page decision handed down on Tuesday last week, Gonzales said that Galera’s direct and straightforward testimony in court, where he said he repeatedly asked and begged to be driven back by the accused to Quezon City, convinced her of the guilt of the two accused.

“No matter what the intention of the accused in getting Galera, the accused had no right to deny Galera’s supplication to go home. The accused’s determined effort to drive towards Sta. Rosa despite Galera’s continued plea to turn around shows the unequivocal intent of the two accused to deprive Galera of his liberty,” she said.

Likewise, Gonzales said Galera was taken against his will, leaving behind his tricycle and his livelihood unsecured, ruling, “This court cannot believe that Galera would casually leave his tricycle behind in a place where he does not reside. The only logical explanation is that Galera was forced to leave his tricycle behind and that he was forced to board Regachuelo’s vehicle.”

She, likewise, assailed Laguno’s defense that Galera voluntarily boarded the SUV because they were neighbors. “If they were neighbors, Laguno would not wait for Galera at the tricycle queue where the chances of finding him are slim as tricycles come and go. Instead Laguno should have waited for Galera at the latter’s house or he could have sent communication that they would meet in an agreed place and on an agreed time,” the judge pointed out adding that Regachuelo, who claimed she lived in the same neighborhood with Galera, never mentioned Laguno as a neighbor.

Gonzales further found that Regachuelo and Laguno acted in a concerted manner to accomplish one design.