Reclusion perpetua for maid in killing of film critics Tioseco, Bohinc

A regional trial court (RTC) has convicted the maid of film critics Alexis Tioseco and Nika Bohinc almost nine years since three men shot the couple to death inside their home in Quezon City.

Judge Editha Mina-Aguba of the Quezon City RTC's Branch 100 on May 4 found house help Criselda Dayag guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of robbery with homicide and sentenced her to reclusion perpetua without parole.

Dayag was also ordered to pay each of Tioseco and Bohinc's heirs P350,000 in temperate, moral, exemplary damages and civil indemnity.

"Under the circumstances, it is believed that she was not innocent and victim of the assailants, as she claimed to be," Aguba's judgment said.

"Without her active involvement from the very moment that she opened the door of the house and let the assailants in, up to the second that she helped in the escape of the assailants, up to the time that she went with the assailants voluntarily, the crime would not have been committed and consummated," the ruling read.

On September 1, 2009, Tioseco, a Filipino-Canadian professor, and Bohinc, his Slovenian film journalist girlfriend, were shot by robbers in their home in Times Street in Barangay West Triangle, Quezon City.

The armed men carted away laptop computers, cell phones, cash in Philippine pesos and US dollars, a gold pendant, and digital cameras, among other items.

Dayag, who had been hired by Tioseco only over a month before his death, went into hiding for more than five years until she was arrested on February 29, 2016. She pleaded not guilty during her arraignment.

During trial, another housemaid of Tioseco, who claimed she was bound, gagged, and blindfolded during the commission of the crime, testified that it was Dayag who let the armed men inside the secured house.

Through the housemaid's testimony, the court deducted that it was Dayag who let the robbers in, "especially that there was no evidence of force[d] entry of the said house."

The housemaid also said Dayag was "calmly texting" while she was bound and gagged.

Dayag denied this, saying it was the other housemaid who let the men inside the house. But the court was not convinced that the robbers would "brusquely of not inhumanely" treat one of their co-conspirators.

The court also did not accept Dayag's claim that she was likewise tied by the armed men, as this was the "complete opposite" of one of the witnesses' testimony that she opened the gate to the house and left with the suspects.

Further, the court said Dayag's flight was an "indication of guilt," ruling that she should have immediately cleared her name if her hands were clean.

"Clearly, she (Dayag) is deemed to have conspired with the assailants in the commission of the instant crime," Aguba said.

It was also learned by the police that Dayag was facing a robbery case in Pasay City after she allegedly similarly applied as a housemaid, let her co-conspirators rob her employers' house, and left. —ALG, GMA News