A Regional Trial Court judge yesterday sentenced a lumber yard worker to 40 years imprisonment without possibility of parole for raping his 7-year-old daughter, despite her pleas for him to stop, in their house located under a bridge in Bacolod City, in 2008.

RTC Branch 43 Judge Philadelfa Pagapong-Agraviador found the 40-year-old father, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of the victim, guilty beyond reasonable doubt of rape and sentenced him to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua.

He was also ordered to pay his daughter P50,000 as civil indemnity and P50,000 as moral damages.

Court records show the victim was 7 years old when her father raped her in their house at about 8 p.m. of Jan. 10, 2008, and punched her in the eye the following morning.

Her father, who was drinking liquor, raped her while her 9-year-old brother was out of the house and her mother was in Manila, the child told the court.

She said “it was very painful” and told her father to stop but he did not.

The next day at school, the teacher of her brother noticed her black eye and asked her what happened. The 7-year-old told the teacher what her father had done and the teacher brought her to the police to report the rape.

The child was later brought to the Balay Pasilungan near the Bacolod City Police Office headquarters in Barangay Taculing for safekeeping.

Her father, who was arrested on January 11, 2008, denied raping her.

The child told the court she cannot forgive her father for what he had done to her and she does not want it to happen again.

“The loss of her innocence at the time when her knowledge should have been limited to dolls, dresses and candies is truly heartbreaking to everyone who believes in common decency,” the judge said.

The judge also said it is galling that the accused branded his child as a liar for accusing him of raping and punching her.

“He did not even display righteous anger and indignation on what happened to his daughter if he was not the one who did them. Surely, if he is the conscientious and responsible father that he wants the court to believe, he would have stated that he would spend his lifetime looking for the person who degraded his daughter and avenge what happened to her,” the judge added.*CPG

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