Three men were sentenced on Thursday to reclusion perpetua, or life imprisonment, for killing a University of the Philippines Manila nursing student during an attempted robbery in 2004.

Judge Reynaldo Alhambraof the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 53 found the following guilty of attempted robbery with homicide – Herbert Malubay, William Sudayao, and Amador Ablana III.

Another accused, Michael Llaneta Jr., died last year, and the case against him was dropped.

In the Philippine legal practice, reclusion perpetua, or life imprisonment (from the Spanish for “permanent imprisonment”), ends after 40 years.

According to court records, the attempted robbery happened on June 24, 2004, at about 9 p.m.

The victim, Jim Carlo Calub, a 20-year-old third year nursing student, was in an FX taxi driven by Renato Bumanlag.

As prosecution witness, Bumanlag testified that he was driving his FX taxi with the four men and the victim on board, along with other passengers.

At the corner of Taft Avenue and Remedio Street in Malate, Manila, he heard a commotion coming from the back of his vehicle.

After glancing at his rear mirror, he turned his head and saw Llaneta and Malubay ganging up the victim. Then Sudayao pulled the student’s hair and joined in ganging up on him.

Bumanlag parked his FX at the corner of Remedios St. He got off the taxi to stop the men from further mauling student.

The men and the student also got off the taxi, and Bumanlag heard the Calub crying for help.

The cabbie then got a lead pipe hidden under his seat. As he got near the men, the four of them ran through Remedios St.

As the cabbie got near Calub, the student feel down, blood oozing from his chest. Bumanlag, with the help of two other passengers, carried the victim and took him to Manila Doctors’ Hospital where he died.

Police later arrested and charged the four suspects, who pleaded not guilty at their arraignment.

At the trial, the four denied having participated in the crime and raised the defense of alibi.

In an eight-page decision, the judge said: “The court finds that their denial of criminal responsibility is worthless in the face of their being positively identified by the prosecution witnesses.

“Clearly they overwhelmed Jim Carlo Calub by surrounding him and then repeatedly stabbing him to death when the victim refused to give them his cell phone and wallet.”

The court also ordered the three to pay the heirs of Calub P75,000 as indemnity for his death, P100,000 in actual damages, P100,000 in moral damages, and P50,000 in exemplary damages.

In awarding moral damages to the heirs of the victim, the judge noted how the victim’s mother, Mercedes Calub, described with such emotion the grief and sleepless night that she and her family suffered. - GMANews.TV