Cardinal Vidal to ask Erap to spare Taneo from death sentence
Balita News Services
willing to grant the request of Mencina Taneo Luceno, daughter of
convicted rapist Teofilo Taneo, and asks Malacanang to spare her father
"I will try to do something about it but I cannot say anything
yet," he told reporters.
The Cardinal has yet to contact President Estrada to appeal for
Taneo's life, but he said that whatever he does will remain between him
and the Taneo family.
Mencina and her relatives from her father's side handed their
letter of request to Cebu Auxiliary Bishop Antonio Ranola last Monday.
She asked the Cardinal to persuade the President to change the
verdict against her father, who raped her when she was only 17, from
death to life imprisonment.
She was raped inside their house in sitio Bihang Bongoyan,
Borbon some four years ago.
The Supreme Court made Taneo's verdict final and executory last
March 22.
If his execution pushes through, he will be the first Cebuano to
die by lethal injection since capital punishment was reinstated in 1994.
Last week, convicted child rapist Eduardo Agbayani was executed
by lethal injection after the last minute reprieve from President
Estrada reportedly failed to reach the death chamber in time.
Estrada was said to have heeded the appeal of Bishop Teodoro
Bacani, his spiritual adviser, to put off the execution but the phone
call, however, came too late.
Agbayani was the second to be executed since 1994, after Leo
Echegaray, who also raped his daughter. (PNA) rgc /lam/EB/RE
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