Ex-Ecija exec gets life term for rape of minor

Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus

SAN JOSE CITY — The former vice mayor of Pantabangan town in Nueva Ecija province was meted out life imprisonment by a judge here on Monday for raping his then 17-year-old maid in 2009.

Romeo Borja Jr., whose father is, at present, jailed in Angeles City in Pampanga province also on rape charges, was found guilty by Judge Leo Cecilio Bautista of the Regional Trial Court Branch 38 here for rape that took place on Oct. 23, 2009, and March 23, 2010.

Borja also impregnated the house help so the court ordered him to pay her P200,000 in moral and civil damages and as support for their child. The woman gave birth to a baby girl on Feb. 1, 2012.

Citing lack of evidence, the court, however, cleared Borja for 20 other rape counts committed against the house help between 2009 and 2011.

During the trial, the woman informed the court that Borja forced her to have sex but she had been afraid about telling anyone about her ordeal because of her employer’s political influence.

Borja and his father Romeo Sr., the former Pantabangan mayor, went into hiding following rape complaints filed by the house help and two other girls.

One of the complainants was a former contestant in a local beauty pageant who claimed that the father and son molested her when she was 15 years old in 2013.

Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus said it took almost five years before the woman got justice. The party-list group Gabriela has been assisting the woman.

“This victory is not just for [her], but for women who for the past five years determinedly kept watch over the case against Borja,” De Jesus said in a statement. —Armand Galang

This victory is not just for [the victim], but for women who for the past five years determinedly kept watch over the case—Rep. Emmi de Jesus, Gabriela