Maggie de la Riva

It has been suggested that Maggie de la Riva rape case be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since October 2021.

Maria Magdalena Torrente de la Riva (born in Manila, Philippines; 3 September 1942^[1]) also known as Maggie de la Riva, is a Filipina film actress and former pageant beauty queen who has appeared in approximately 80 films.

Riva is also widely known for a sexual assault incident in her early career, when she was abducted and raped in 1967 by four men from influential families.

Early life[]

Maggie de la Riva was born to Pilar Torrente (Spanish mestiza) and Juan de la Riva (German Swiss).^[1]

In 1958, Riva completed her elementary and high school at Miriam College (then known as Maryknoll College) and finished secretarial training in 1960 at Saint Theresa's College. In 1963, she was selected as one of the top five finalists for the beauty pageant ‘’Miss Caltex of 1963’’. In that same year, Riva also represented Filipino gowns for the ‘’Fashion Guild of the Philippines’’ under the designer “Millie's Gowns”. In 1964, she was hired as a brand promoter for “Respect the Centavo”, a savings advertisement. Before she became an actress she was a ballet dancer.^[1]

As a movie actress, she was paid ₱8,000 per picture. At ABS-CBN, she performed in radio broadcasts and television shows (₱800 per month in permanent shows, ₱300 per month in live promotional shows, and ₱100–200 per appearance as guest in other shows). She was the sole breadwinner of the family after the death of her father, Juan. Her mother took care of the family.^[2]

She first appeared with Joseph Estrada in Istambay (English: Bystander). It was Estrada that gave her a break in becoming a star. Her most memorable role was in Ang Langit Ay Para Sa Lahat, which she considers her best work. She was also a singer and was always a guest in the leading night clubs in Manila. She had her own TV show titled Maggie on ABS 3. She was also a guest artist in Tanghalan sa Darigold and a recurring guest in Tindahan sa Nayon in VG Television Production on MBC 11.^[1]

Rape and sexual assault[]

Maggie de la Riva was a rising young ABS-CBN television star in 1967, when she was abducted, raped and tortured at the Swanky Hotel in Pasay, Philippines.

Dela Riva was going home to New Manila, Quezon City from the ABS-CBN Studios on Roxas Boulevard, Pasay. She was driving her Bantam car, with her chambermaid Helen Calderón, when the four men driving a Pontiac 2-door convertible car, waylaid her by physical force.

The four men in the Pontiac, all coming from influential families, were the following.

At approximately 3:00 a.m. on Monday, 26 June 1967, the principal four assailants, along with accomplices Wong Lay Pueng, Silverio Guanzón y Romero and Jessie Guión y Envoltario, having conspired together, forcibly abducted Riva, and brought her to the Swanky Hotel in Pasay. The four assailants, by means of force and intimidation and with the use of a deadly weapon, raped her. After the gang finished, at 6:00 a.m. the following day, they put Dela Riva into a taxi, in front of the Free Press Building near Epifanio de los Santos Avenue and Channel 5 studios.

At home, her mother, her brother-in-law, Ben Suba, and several Philippine Constabulary officers, local policemen and media reporters, were present. Dela Riva told her mother about her ordeal. On 29 June 1967, Dela Riva and her lawyer filed a complaint with the Quezon City Police Department.^[2]

Arrest of the assailants, trial, and judgment[]

Jaime Gómez José was arrested in Makati by undercover police officers disguised as ice cream vendors and carpenters near the subdivision he lived in. During his interrogation, he gave details of the commission of the crime and named Rogelio Cañal, Pineda, and Aquino as his companions. Hearing of his arrest, Cañal and Pineda fled with Aquino to Batangas. A manhunt operation ensued, wherein Cañal and Pineda were tracked down in the municipality of Taal; the two were apprehended by police in a resthouse. Aquino surrendered himself to Aurelia Leviste, the wife of the Governor of Batangas, after three days of hiding.

During the investigation, Pineda maintained the account that they had raped and assaulted Dela Riva as retribution for hitting their car. In addition, he claims to have bribed dela Riva for ₱1,000 for a striptease, claiming that she willingly complied. The court found the story contemptuous and immediately rendered a guilty verdict with a grand total penalty of ₱40,000 equally split among all four assailants.

On 2 October 1967, the trial Court found the accused; Jaime José, Rogelio Sevilla, RCE/RME, Eduardo Aquino, and Basílio Pineda, Jr. guilty of the crime of forcible abduction with rape under Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, and sentenced each of them to death by electric chair. They appealed the judgement, but lost.

In a per curiam judgment in G.R. No. L-28232 on 6 February 1971, the Supreme Court modified the RTC decision, to declare the following:^[2]

"... 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."

Execution of the accused[]

The conviction was obtained by Philippine Judge Lourdes San Diego of the Regional Trial Court. Three assailants were executed by electric chair on 17 May 1972, and by direct order of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, while the actual proceedings were broadcast on national radio.^[3] Sevilla, the fourth, had died in prison from drug overdose in 1971, a year before the executions.^[4]

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. 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 stated to have been uncontrollably weeping during a radio interview.

At their 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 he was 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. His mother, Dolores, was at Malacanang Palace for a private audience with the President to appeal for a pardon; Marcos accordingly declined due to 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, José was given another application of current after the prison doctor found him to still be alive.

Basílio Pineda, the second to be executed, was forcibly dragged to the death chamber due to a slight commotion. Edgardo Aquino died last. Of the executed, only Aquino appeared to be repentant, and showing remorse for the crime. A prison chaplain, head of the prison guards, and doctor were stated to have heard his last words: "Avoid bad companions and obey your parents".

Aftermath and legacy[]

The criminal proceedings and execution announcements of each of the accused were broadcast on public radio station DZRH, causing sensationalism and public hysteria. Dela Riva's ordeal pioneered the subject of rape in the Philippines.^[5][6]

The reputed incident was dramatized into the 1994 film The Maggie de la Riva Story (God... Why Me?). The film starred actress Dawn Zulueta as the titular character. Her niece, singer Ana Rivera, played her sister Medy dela Riva-Suba, while the late Miguel Rodríguez played Jaime José. Dela Riva herself made a cameo appearance in the film.

On 6 March 2017, Dela Riva maintained on Philippine national television that the death penalty should still be a part of the judicial conviction of rape and assault cases. The death penalty had been abolished by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2006.

At present, the Swanky Hotel where the incident occurred still stands, and has since been renamed Galaxy Lodge.

References[]

External links[]

• Maggie de la Riva at IMDb