SC upholds Korean businessman's rape conviction
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/01/2009 10:23 PM
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MANILA - The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the ruling of a lower court finding a Korean businessman guilty of beating and raping a South Korean woman inside his restaurant in Paranaque 11 years ago.
In a 14-page decision penned by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco, Jr., the Court’s Third Division denied the petition for review filed by Yoon Chang Wook seeking the reversal of the decision by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Paranaque City sentencing him to imprisonment of reclusion perpetua.
The SC held that Yoon’s mere assertion that he did not rape the victim was not enough to overcome “the positive, straightforward, unequivocal, and categorical testimony of the victim.”
“An affirmative testimony, especially when it comes from the mouth of a credible witness, is far stronger than a negative one. Mere denial, if unsubstantiated by clear and convincing evidence, is inherently weak, being self-serving negative evidence undeserving of weight in law; it cannot be given greater evidentiary value than the positive testimony of a rape victim. In the case at bar, Yoon failed to present convincing proof in support of his denial,” the SC said in its decision.
The high Court noted that the trial court thoroughly evaluated the testimonies of the defense witnesses which it found insufficient to disprove the testimony of the victim.
The victim testified that she and Yoon met in Seoul, South Korean in 1995 through a third party.
Yoon said she later learned that she wanted to send her daughter to the Philippines to study and offered to assist her being already familiar with the country.
Yoon asked the victim for the amount of P600,000 to defray processing expenses before traveling to the Philippines.
Upon the request of Yoon, the victim followed bringing with her some documents needed for her daughter’s enrolment.
The victim later admitted having a relationship with Yoon but it was only short-lived due to guilt feelings on her part and the realization that the latter was just after her money.
While in Seoul, the victim said Yoon called her up to tell her that he has changed for the better and now owning a restaurant.
Yoon asked her to come to Manila so he could pay his debts to her amounting to more than P2 million.
The victim said she was convinced to come back to the Philippines and went to Yoon’s restaurant on June 6, 1998 to get his payment.
But when she arrived at the restaurant, the victim said Yoon raped her after he and four other companions forcefully stripped her clothes, gagged, tied, and blindfolded her, and beat her up.
The victim added that she was dragged to the bathroom where they poured gasoline all over her body and threatened to burn her alive.
She said she was released only by Yoon after she agreed to make a promissory note showing indebtedness to him.
The Court branded as “absurd and too flimsy” Yoon’s claim that the victim fabricated charges against him in order to free herself from unpaid obligations.
The High Tribunal noted that the trial court found the victim to be financially secured Korean who can afford to send her daughter to a foreign land to sturdy in an exclusive school.
The Court has directed Yoon to pay the victim the amount of P130,000 representing moral and exemplary damages.
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