Kidnap victim identifies ex-QC rep Roldan as his abductor

MANILA, Philippines - The six-year-old Filipino-Chinese boy who was kidnapped in February 2005 on Tuesday positively identified actor and former Quezon City congressman Dennis Roldan as his abductor before the court. Testifying during resumption of the hearing on the kidnapping case against Roldan (Mitchell Gumabao in real life), the boy, accompanied by his father, approached the suspect and pointed to him as “the big boss” in the abduction. The victim was also able to identify a female cohort of Roldan, Rowena San Andres, describing her as the “bad mother” who did “horrible things” to him. “She made me eat food without spoon and fork,” the boy said in his testimony. The hearing was held before the sala of Pasig RTC branch 159 Judge Rodolfo Bonifacio. Roldan’s counsel, Orlando Salatandre Jr, said they are not bothered by the victim’s testimony, noting several inconsistencies in the boy’s statement. Salatandre also scored the “selective memory” of the boy who he said remembered the faces of his abductors but not his classmates' in school. “We are not bothered by his testimony. We hope that the honorable judge will not favor his testimony. It has been three years since the kidnapping and we believe the selective memory of the child only raised the suspicion that he was taught what to say before the court,” Salatandre said in an interview after the hearing. On the other hand, the victim’s lawyer, Rose Ann Balawag, said they are leaving it to the court to decide whether the boy’s testimony was credible or not. Teresita Ang See, the head of the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order, expressed confidence that the victim’s testimony was “consistent.” “His consistency and the way he reacted when he approached Roldan only showed that the child, like any other child, can remember these kinds of trauma or instances despite his young age,” Ang See said. - GMANews.TV