A 43-year-old tricycle driver was sentenced yesterday to 40 years imprisonment for the rape-slay of a 16-year-old girl whom he left to die beside a creek in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.

Bacolod Regional Trial Court Branch 43 Judge Philadelfa Pagapong Agraviador found Arnold Abendan Buliag of Hacienda Gonzaga, Barangay Zone 15, Talisay City, guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of rape with homicide and sentenced him to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua with no possibility of parole.

He was also ordered to pay the heirs of his victim, Joan Pacilan Barrios, P75,000 as civil indemnity, P25,000 as temperate damages and P50,000 as exemplary damages.

The court was told that Buliag, in his extra judicial confession, said he grabbed Barios while she was walking and dragged he into a sugarcane field on June 18, 2006. The 16-year-old resisted and he punched her in the stomach rendering her unconscious after which he raped her.

Buliag then carried the unconscious teen and left her beside a creek with her feet near the water causing her to drown when flood waters rose, the court was also told.

The body of the teen was found two days later on June 20, 2006 floating in the creek of Goldcrest Village in Barangay Bata, Bacolod.

The prosecution presented three witnesses to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Buliag raped and killed Barrios, the judge said.

The first witness was lawyer Enrique Olmedo who testified that he was called to assist the accused in giving his extra-judicial confession at Bacolod Police Precinct 3 and that he willingly admitted to the crime.

Buliag admitted that he signed the extra judicial confession but said he did not understand its contents that were not explained to him, the judge noted.

However, Police Office Jessie Baylon testified to Buliag's request to execute an extra judicial confession and getting Olmedo to assist him.

Dr. Eli Cong, medico legal officer of Bacolod City, who conducted an autopsy on the body of Barrios found that the victim had lacerations consistent with the commission of rape.

Her cause of death was drowning consistent with Buliag's extra judicial confession that he left the unconscious 16-year-old alongside the creek which became flooded, the judge said.

The extrajudicial confession itself is replete with details that only a person who had truly experienced of what happened could have narrated, the judge added.

Buliag yesterday continued to deny that he had raped and killed the 16-year-old.*CPG

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