Daughter of death convict asks Pres. Estrada to spare pa
Balita News Services
Cebuano rapist sentenced to die by lethal injection is asking President
Estrada to spare her father from death.
Mencita Taneo Luceno sent a letter to Malacanang last Tuesday
telling the President that she has forgiven her father, Teofilo Taneo,
who raped her in Sitio Bihang, Bongoyan, Borbon five years ago.
"You can mete out as many life sentences as you want for my
father but please spare him from death. I have forgiven him, I hope you
can forgive him too," Mencita said in her letter.
Her request to the President came days before Taneo wrote her a
letter asking her to save him.
"Take pity on me. You're the only one who can save me now and I
plead for your compassion,"Taneo said in his letter, which Mencita
received last Friday.
He wrote the letter on a grade schooler's piece of paper.
Taneo's mother, Catalina, said she doubts if she can bear the
pain of losing her eldest son by way of lethal injection.
She will ask Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal to intercede
on her family's behalf in saving Taneo.
"I will ask Nila (Taneo's younger sister) to draft the letter
since I don't know how to write," the 70-year-old mother said.
The cardinal said he will see what he can do to help the
convicted rapist and his family.
Nila said her seven other siblings will also write a separate
letter each to Estrada.
Taneo raped Mencita last May 23, 1995 at 3 p.m. inside their
house in Bongoyan, Borbon.
The barrio is seven kilometers away from the poblacion.
Mencita said her father sent her mother and siblings out on an
errand then raped her when they were alone.
Five years after the incident, the Taneo's house now stands
abandoned on top of a hill overlooking sitio Bihang.
Only the family's old portrait of the Blessed Virgin Mary hangs
on a wall next to the bed where Mencita said she was raped. Wild grass
and camote tops grow all over the front yard, where a well-kept
vegetable garden used to be.
"We had to move out, I don't feel comfortable there," said
Mencita, who is now living with her husband Alexander and their two
little kids-- a boy and a girl-- in Sitio Candinayla, near the
poblacion.
Catalina's seven siblings work as domestic helpers and factory
workers in Borbon and neighboring towns.
"Life was hard at first with all that anger and hatred for my
father," said the 23-year-old Mencita.
"It will be harder if he will be sent to the chamber," the
daughter added, teary-eyed. (PNA) fpv/eb/re/ptr
PNA 06291536