4 get 2 life terms for teens’ kidnap

MANILA, Philippines — Four men, one of them previously convicted for a similar crime, were sentenced yesterday to serve two life sentences for the kidnapping of two sisters in Taguig City over nine years ago.

Taguig City Regional Trial Court Branch 163 Judge Leili Cruz Suarez found Evelio Sabarez, Riel Malquisito Maltos, Lito Destrajo and Ronald Corbes guilty of two counts of kidnapping for ransom.

She sentenced the four men to serve up to 40 years in prison for each count, without eligibility for parole, and ordered them to pay P300,000 in damages with a six-percent annual interest until fully paid.

The judge also directed the court to archive the same charges against Philip Bartolo, who remains at large. The case will be revived upon his arrest.

The four men heard the judge’s 23-page decision at a courtroom in the New Bilibid Prison, where Sabarez is currently detained. The three others came from the Taguig City Jail, and would soon be transferred to the NBP.

Sabarez was convicted of kidnapping by a Manila court in 2016 and is awaiting the decision in a similar case in Bulacan, Taguig City prosecutor Cesar dela Cruz said.

Pam, 27, broke down upon hearing the ruling against the men who kidnapped her and her sister Lia, 23. They were accompanied by their mother.

They were accompanied by members of the Movement for the Restoration of Peace and Order and by Anti-Kidnapping Group police officers who filed the charges against the four men.

The kidnappers snatched Pam and Lia, then 17 and 14 respectively, after setting up a fake police checkpoint along East Service Road in Taguig Road on March 19, 2009. The sisters were riding a Honda CRV on their way to school.

Court records show the kidnappers demanded $80 million but later settled for P1.15 million, which the sisters’ mother paid to Bartolo.

The kidnappers released the sisters five days later.

Pam said while and her sister have moved on, she occasionally has nightmares – she hears the voices of the men shouting at her while they raped her.