2 accused in Eunice Chuang kidnap-slay found guilty

MANILA, Philippines – It took 14 years and four judges, but justice was finally served on Monday to the kin of five-year-old Eunice Chuang who, along with her nanny Jovita Montecino, were abducted and killed in 2000.

Saying that the suspects were basically “caught red-handed” committing the crime, acting Presiding Judge Mona Lisa Tiongson-Tabora of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 5 found taxi driver Monico Santos and his cousin, Francis Canoza, guilty of the crimes of kidnapping and double homicide.

She sentenced Santos to life imprisonment “with all its accessory penalties and without eligibility for parole.”

Canoza, who was found guilty of the charges as an accomplice, was handed an indeterminate jail sentence of 10 to 15 years, depending on his conduct and the number of years he spent in jail while the case was pending.

Each man was ordered to pay P500,000 in moral damages and P75,000 in civil indemnity to the kin of Chuang and Montecino.

Sought for comment, Chuang’s mother, Emily, said that the verdict was poignant for her and her family.

“We are happy but the decision will not bring back my daughter,” Emily, who was in tears, told reporters outside the court after the verdict was read. “But maybe Eunice is now in heaven.”

Meanwhile, the convicts were whisked away by jail guards after the hearing, while their counsel and families did not comment on the decision.

In her 17-page decision, Tabora noted that while there was no witness who testified that the accused abducted and killed Chuang and Montecino, the circumstantial evidence against them was too strong to ignore.

“Undoubtedly, [Santos] was caught red-handed. While arguably no witness was presented to pinpoint [him] as the kidnapper and how he was able to commit the crime that led to the death of the victims, nothing speaks more eloquently than the gruesome evidence discovered in his sister’s house,” she said.

A day after the victims disappeared, police investigators found their lifeless bodies in the ceiling of Santos’ house in Bulacan province.

Tabora noted that the circumstantial evidence presented by the prosecution—the victims were last seen in the taxi being driven by Santos on Oct. 17, 2000; that the two went missing after; that Santos tried to mislead Chuang’s mother and investigators about what happened; that the victims were found in Santos’ house hogtied and dead; and that Santos had admitted to the crime and claimed Canoza helped him—pointed to the suspects’ guilt.

For its part, the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order (MRPO), an advocacy group composed of the families of kidnap-for-ransom victims, also welcomed the decision, though it also stressed the painstaking 14 years it had to wait for a conviction.

“The MRPO is determined to eventually put the necessary closure to the case. Justice may not have been swift, but a guilty verdict is just as sweet especially to the members of the victims’ family who sacrificed, suffered and struggled only to ensure that they would get the justice they so deserve,” said MRPO chair Ka Kuen Chua.

Teresita Ang See, MRPO’s founding chairperson, said that of all the cases they were handling, the Chuang case broke records for all the wrong reasons.

“This is the longest trial that we have ever seen in our organization. It also went through the largest number of judges we have seen handle a case which is four. The first judge, Amalia Andrade, retired before she could finish hearing the case. Judge Jansen Rodriguez took over, only to note that the prosecution was no longer presenting rebuttal evidence. Judge Amor Reyes took over, and then Judge Tabora followed, until in 2013, when current Presiding Judge Emily San Gaspar-Gito was assigned here. However, it was agreed that, in order to avoid further delays in the disposition of the case, Judge Tabora will be the one to issue the decision in the case,” Ang See said.

On Oct. 17, 2000, Chuang and Montecino went missing after they were last seen riding in Santos’ taxi cab on their way home from school. When Chuang’s family reported their disappearance to the police, Santos claimed that a man had flagged down his taxi and had taken the victims.

However, when Santos invited the police to his house in Bulacan province the day after the victims went missing, they found Chuang and Montecino dead, hogtied and hidden in the ceiling. Investigation showed that the two died of suffocation. The victims also showed signs that they endured pain because of the tight knots binding them to the beams of the ceiling.

Later during the investigation, it emerged that Canoza had helped Santos carry out the crime, with Chuang’s grandmother testifying that she saw Canoza boarding Santos’ taxi on the day the victims disappeared.

The two were arrested, with Santos admitting that he kidnapped the child and her nanny so that he could demand a ransom of P300,000. He said he needed money for home repairs.