Filipino seaman gets “life” For murdering Boholano

Verdict in England

JUSTICE came rather quickly for the family of slain Boholano seaman who was hammered to death, on board a luxury cruiser in England last May. The murderer, another Filipino seaman has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a royal court in England , in a decision that may account as record time, if it were tried in the Philippines .

The Winchester Crown Court verdict convicting Rodulfo Juanga, an Ilongo, for hammering crewmate and Valencia native Joel Tagaan dead on his head was read in the presence of the victim's wife, Eugenia Bullecer-Tagaan, brother Councilor Diego Tagaan of Valencia and brother-in-law Vice Mayor Tiburcio Bullecer Jr. of Loay.

In the account of prosecution lawyer Nick Hawkins, Juanga attacked his fellow Filipino mariner with-a “large and heavy hammer," hitting him on his head twice aboard the gigantic luxury ocean liner Queen Mary 2 in the north sea some 100 nautical miles off Holland on May 12, this year. The fatal assault happened in the presence of shocked other crewmen inside their mess hall during lunch time. Gamelin Palac, also a ship crew and cousin of Tagaan, was seated fronting the victim when the murder occurred. Palac would have been killed, too, had he not scampered for safety away from his cousin's killer. Like Juanga, Tagaan was a ship electrician.

The court heard that Juanga was resentful that Tagaan and other electricians were paid higher than what he received. In convicting Juanga, Judge Michael Broderick ruled: “You armed yourself with a weapon and in my view, with regard to the blows, you intended to kill or at the very least to cause such injuries that Tagaan would never lead a normal life again.” Juanga, 49, a native of Escalante, Negros Occidental but has since resided in Taguig, Metro Manila, pleaded guilty of the crime.

The police arrested him as soon as the ship docked at the Southampton Port , the biggest in England where Queen Mary 2 was registered. Tagaan's wife, brother and brother-in-law were flown to the United Kingdom at the expense of the British court under its Witnesses Welfare Program just to be present in the promulgation. Eugenia was made by the court to give a “victim's impact statement.”

The three were seated just five meters away from their loved one's murderer inside the courtroom during the reading of the verdict. Philippine Embassy officials Leo Herrera Lim, Tess Lazaro and Royero, an attache in London as well as ship management representatives witnessed the promulgation along with Tagaan's wife. Tagaan leaves behind his wife who works at the accounting division of the Aboitiz Shipping Lines in Cebu City , and two sons Niño Joseph Viktor, 7 and Michael Joseph, 2. The corpse of the Boholano seaman had been kept in state in The Hague of Holland for 40 days until transported back to Bohol and buried last July 1 at the Victoria Memorial Park in Tagbilaran.

l