This case has been cited 6 times or more.
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2010-03-03 |
NACHURA, J. |
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| Furthermore, we are not persuaded by appellant's contention that the victim offered no resistance to appellant's sexual advances, for as testified to by Sarmiento, AAA continuously pushed appellant while the latter was raping her. We also disagree with the contention that the victim's failure to shout for help is fatal to the charge of rape. Physical resistance is not an essential element of the felony and need not be established when intimidation is exercised upon the victim and the latter submits herself, against her will, to the rapist's embrace because of fear for her life and personal safety.[8] The moral and physical ascendancy of the father over his daughter-victim is sufficient to cow her into submission to his bestial desires.[9] | |||||
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2004-07-06 |
YNARES-SANTIAGO, J. |
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| We disagree with the contention that the victim's failure to shout for help is fatal to the charge of rape. Furthermore, we are not persuaded by appellant's contention that the victim offered no resistance. Rape is committed when the accused has carnal knowledge of a woman by use of force or intimidation.[29] Physical resistance is not an essential element of the felony, and need not be established when intimidation is exercised upon the victim and the latter submits herself, against her will, to the rapist's embrace because of fear for her life and personal safety.[30] It is enough that the malefactor intimidated the complainant into submission. Failure to shout or offer tenacious resistance did not make voluntary the complainant's submission to the criminal acts of the accused.[31] Furthermore, not every victim of rape can be expected to act with reason or in conformity with the usual expectations of everyone.[32] The workings of a human mind placed under emotional stress are unpredictable; people react differently. Some may shout, some may faint, while others may be shocked into insensibility.[33] | |||||
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2003-05-05 |
BELLOSILLO, J. |
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| Q: When was it that he was able to insert his penis into your vagina? A: Last April 1997 COURT: Q: What was your age at that time A: 11 years old. PROSECUTOR: Q: Now, you said that you were last raped in April 1997, where did it happen? A: At Inayawan, Pardo. Q: Can you tell this Honorable Court how come that you and your father were at Inayawan, Pardo, Cebu City? A: At first, he told me we would go to the house of my uncle. Q: Where did he tell that he would bring you to your uncle's house? A: At that time when he told me I was in Mandaue. He even slapped me because I didn't want to go with him to my uncle's house x x x x Q: You said at that time then your father told you that he would bring you to your uncle's house. In effect, did he bring you to your uncle's house? A: No, ma'am. Q: Where did he bring you? A: At the seashore. Q: Do you know where that seashore was located? A: Yes, ma'am. Q: Where, in what seashore? In what place? A: In that seashore, there are stores. There is a grassy portion before the seashore. Q: When he brought you there, what did he do to you? A: He pulled me. Q: And after pulling you? A: He forced me to lie down. Q: After he forced you to lie down, what did he do to you? A: He lied (sic) on my stomach. Q: What was he wearing at that time? A: Trousers. And afterwards, he removed my trousers. Q: x x x x Was that all he removed? A: Yes, ma'am. Q: What about the panty, What did he do? A: The trousers and the panty. But the t-shirt, he did not remove. Q: You mean to tell us, you were completely naked? A: Only the trousers and panty. Q: Now, when your father forcibly removed your trousers and your panty, what did you do? A: At that time, when he forcibly removed my trousers and panty, I cried but nobody could hear me because it was an uninhabited place and we were the only two persons there, and then he inserted his penis into my vagina. I cried because of the pain. Q: You said when he inserted his penis into your vagina, you cried because of the pain. Now, can you tell this Honorable Court how long did he insert his penis into your vagina? A: I could not recall because I was crying at that time. [46] Too, a daughter of tender age, like Rowena who was barely eleven (11) to twelve (12) then, would not accuse her own father had she not been truly subjected to the pain and harrowing experience of sexual abuse she testified to under oath.[47] For, it would take the most senseless mind or a certain amount of moral and psychological depravity for a young daughter to concoct a story which could put her own father to jail for the rest of his remaining life, if not death, and drag the rest of the family including herself to a lifetime of shame.[48] | |||||
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2001-02-15 |
PER CURIAM |
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| As regards the penalty, the punishment for statutory rape, under Article 335, par. 3 of the Revised Penal Code is death. The two elements that must be established to hold the accused guilty of statutory rape are: 1) that the accused had carnal knowledge of a woman, and 2) that the woman is below 12 years of age. Thus the age of the victim, as an essential element for the conviction thereof, must unquestionably be proved by the prosecution[14]. The death penalty cannot be imposed where there is no evidence at all of the age of the victim or where the evidence is weak, unreliable and insufficient[15]. | |||||
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2000-05-31 |
PARDO, J. |
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| In People vs. Luzorata,[31] the Court held that intimidation was addressed to the mind of the victim and therefore subjective, and its presence could not be tested by any hard-and-fast rule but must be viewed in light of the victim's perception and judgment at the time of the crime. Thus, when a rape victim becomes paralyzed with fear, she cannot be expected to think and act coherently, her failure to immediately take advantage of the early opportunity to escape does not automatically vitiate the credibility of her account. [32] "Complainant cannot be faulted for not taking any action inasmuch as different people react differently to a given type of situation, there being no standard form of human behavioral response when one is confronted with a strange, startling or frightful experience."[33] | |||||
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2000-03-31 |
QUISUMBING, J. |
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| Appellant makes much of the fact that the physician who examined the victim a month after the rape testified that the hymenal lacerations could have been inflicted even as far as three (3) months previous to the date of examination. Considering that the medical examination took place almost a month after the rape incident, the physician could at best only estimate the possible date of the rape within the range of a certain period. Furthermore, laceration of the hymen, even if considered the most telling and irrefutable physical evidence of sexual assault, is not always essential to establish the consummation of the crime of rape.[38] In fact, even the absence of hymenal lacerations does not disprove sexual abuse for the mere introduction of the male organ into the labia of the pudendum constitutes carnal knowledge.[39] Insofar as the evidentiary value of a medical examination is concerned, we have held that "a medical examination of the victim, as well as the medical certificate, is merely corroborative in character and is not an indispensable element in rape. What is important is that the testimony of private complainant about the incident is clear, unequivocal and credible."[40] A medical examination is not indispensable to the prosecution of rape as long as the evidence on hand convinces the court that a conviction for rape is proper.[41] | |||||