Magdalena "Maggie" de la Riva (born September 3, 1942), a 24-year-old actress and host, was abducted from in front of her home in New Manila, Quezon City on June 26, 1967, by four men, all of whom were sons of influential families, and taken to a motor hotel where she was abused and raped.
1972: The rapists of Maggie dela Riva
On this date in 1972, Jaime Jose, Basilio Pineda and Edgardo Aquino were electrocuted* in Muntinlupa for the gang-rape of actress Maggie de la Riva (or dela Riva) five years before.
The rising young actress had scarcely wavered after the assault before courageously making the always-fraught rape charge against a quartet of attackers themselves from elite families. (The particulars are recounted in the Supreme Court ruling.)
The case was a media sensation from day one. The Philippine film blog Video 48 republished a three-part series on the rapists’ capture (parts 1 and 2) and execution (part 3), complete with the desperate efforts of the offenders’ families to save them.
The victim herself continued her acting career.
The four perpetrators, all of whom were from wealthy and influential families, consisted of the following:
Jaime Gómez José
Edgardo Payumo Aquino
Basilio Pineda, Jr
Rogelio Sevilla Cañal
Trial
De la Riva moved from her home in New Manila to a safehouse in Camp Crame after she was threatened. The trial began on July 11, 1967, in the Quezon City Court of First Instance (the predecessor to the Regional Trial Court), presided by Lourdes Paredes San Diego.
Pineda claimed that they had raped and assaulted de la Riva as retribution for hitting their car. In addition, he claimed to have bribed de la Riva for ₱1,000 for a striptease, asserting that she willingly complied.
On October 2, 1967, the Court found the accused guilty of committing forcible abduction with rape under Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines and sentenced them to death by electric chair, along with a ₱10,000 penalty each to indemnify de la Riva.
Appeals and execution of the convicted
Imprisonment and appeals
The four men were sent to Muntinlupa National Penitentiary while their appeals were being heard. While in prison, they met an American missionary named Olga Robertson, who resided outside the prison complex and devoted most of her time to prison ministry. Olga visited the three condemned men and requested that they memorize the Bible verse John 14:6. Three months later, she visited the men again but she discovered that they were no longer interested in spiritual things. Determined to save the souls of the men, she returned the day before their scheduled execution. Aquino quickly recited John 14:6 while Jaime José was faint with grief and fear.
On December 28, 1970, Rogelio Canal died from a drug overdose, two years before the executions. In a per curiam judgment in G.R. No. L-28232 on February 6, 1971, the Supreme Court modified the RTC decision, to declare the following
"... appellants Jaime G. Jose, Rogelio Sevilla, Basilio Pineda, Jr., and Edgardo P. Aquino are pronounced guilty of the complex crime of forcible abduction with rape, and each and every one of them is likewise convicted of three (3) other crimes of rape. As a consequence thereof, each of them is hereby sentenced to four (4) death penalties; all of them shall, jointly and severally, indemnify the complainant of the sum of ₱10,000 in each of the four crimes, or a total of ₱40,000; and each shall pay one-fourth (1/4) of the costs."
Executions
The remaining three assailants were executed by electric chair on May 17, 1972, by direct order of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, while the actual proceedings were broadcast on national radio.
On the day of their execution, the condemned ate a breakfast of fried chicken with bread and coffee, then had their heads shaved at 10:00 a.m. Their last meal was a lunch of rice, kare-kare, chicken tinola, lobster, crispy pata, lechon, fried lapu-lapu, and ice cream. The condemned were said to have been weeping uncontrollably during a radio interview.
Early in the afternoon, Olga Robertson brought other inmates who sang hymns of praise to encourage the three condemned men. Nine doctors administered to the condemned before they entered the electric chair chamber.
At their execution, a horde of reporters was divided into three groups to witness each execution.
Jaime José was the first to enter the death chamber. As he was strapped to the chair, he entered a state of shock after being sedated. He spent his final moments weeping as his face was covered with a leather mask, his bare feet resting on a wet block of quarry stone. Among the witnesses was his father, José, who had promised his son that he would be present in his final moments. His mother, Dolores, was at Malacanang Palace for a private audience with the President to appeal for a pardon, which Marcos declined because of the widespread public anger over the incident. José was executed when three prison guards activated switches to the electric chair, of which only one was the live switch. After the initial shock, when the prison doctor found him to be still alive, it was debated whether he should be taken back to his cell since the first shock didn't kill him. He was given another application of current and was pronounced dead at 3:20 p.m.
Basílio Pineda, the second to be executed, was forcibly dragged to the death chamber and was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m.
The final convict to be executed, Edgardo Aquino, was the only condemned who appeared to show remorse for the crime. A prison chaplain, head of the prison guards, and a doctor heard his last words: "Avoid bad companions and obey your parents". He was pronounced dead at 4:10 p.m.
Olga believes that the three men went from the executioner's chair into the arms of their Savior and that Aquino triumphantly said, "Lord Jesus, I give you my life and no one can take it from me".
The three men's bodies were then taken to the Bilibid Hospital morgue for final identification and were claimed the next day by the relatives. José's funeral had his casket closed for the entire duration of the wake until his burial.
J’accuse! Maggie de la Riva identifies two of the culprits just five days after her gang rape. Talk about facing your accuser; according to the accompanying article, “the frail-looking mestiza was a picture of righteous indignation as she extended her arms, showed her bruises, and asked Pineda, pointedly: ‘Do you remember these?'”
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