FIRST DIVISION
[G.R. No. 184609. June 5, 2013.]
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. ELINO ARCAYOS y BELTRAN, accused-appellant.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames:
Please take notice that the Court, First Division, issued a Resolution datedJune 5, 2013 which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 184609 — THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Plaintiff-Appellee v. ELINO ARCAYOS y BELTRAN, Accused-Appellant.
Another father appeals his conviction for the rape of his 15-year old daughter. The Regional Trial Court, Branch 5, in Dinalupihan, Bataan (RTC) had prescribed the death penalty after finding him guilty of qualified rape in its decision of August 15, 2005, and the Court of Appeals (CA), through its decision promulgated on February 20, 2008, 1 affirmed the conviction but reduced the penalty to reclusion perpetua.
The accused was charged with and arraigned for qualified rape averred in the following information, 2 to wit:
That on or about March 19, 1998 at Brgy. Pentor, Dinalupihan, Bataan, Philippines and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the said accused through force and intimidation, and with the use of a deadly weapon, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously lie and succeed in having sexual intercourse with his daughter, AAA, 3 a fifteen (15)-year old minor girl, against the will and consent of the latter, to her damage and prejudice.
CONTRARY TO LAW. 4
The evidence of the State follows. At around 10:00 p.m. on March 19, 1998, AAA was lying on her bed, while BBB, her mother, was already asleep on the floor of the house. Alongside BBB was the accused, AAA's father, who was then reading a pocketbook. Shortly thereafter, he entered the mosquito net covering AAA's bed and laid down beside her. He brandished a knife and ordered AAA to take off her shorts and panties while threatening her with the knife. AAA refused, and pushed and kicked him away, which made him angry enough to warn her that he would hurt her if she continued resisting. He then undressed her himself. Then, he took off his shorts and brief. He penetrated her vagina with his penis despite her pushing and kicking him off. After satisfying his lust, he threatened her from making any noise. In the morning, AAA found bloodstains on her underwear. Although she felt weak, she decided to keep her ordeal to herself because of the threat of the accused. 5 TAEcSC
On October 3, 1998, the accused returned home drunk and tried to embrace AAA, but she pushed him away. Angered by her rejection, he strangled her and poked a barbecue stick to her neck. BBB arrived just in time and pacified him. BBB ordered her daughter to go to her aunt's house. He followed AAA there, but she locked the door of her aunt's house. He tried hard to persuade her to come out, but she firmly refused to do so, screaming Ayoko na! Ayoko na! Her aunt and her husband soon arrived at their house with the barangay chairman and some policemen. The policemen took custody of the accused and brought him to the Municipal Hall. Only then did AAA muster the courage to tell her mother and her aunt that the accused had raped her earlier. BBB brought AAA to the Jose G. Payumo, Jr. Memorial Hospital for a medico-legal examination, 6 the results of which revealed that AAA had old-healed hymenal lacerations in her vaginal vault at 3, 5 and 9 o'clock positions. 7 AAA executed her statement charging her own father with rape.
The accused waived the right to present evidence in his defense, and, instead, filed a manifestation, 8 whereby he insisted that the Prosecution had failed to establish his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
On August 15, 2005, the RTC found and declared the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of qualified rape, decreeing:
WHEREFORE, the prosecution having proven the guilt of the accused, Elino Arcayos y Beltran, beyond reasonable doubt, the court hereby sentences the same accused to suffer a penalty of DEATH, and to pay the victim the amount of Php50,000.00 as moral damages.
SO DECIDED. 9
On appeal, the accused assigned the lone error that:
THE COURT A QUO ERRED IN FINDING THE ACCUSED-APPELLANT GUILTY OF THE CRIME OF RAPE DESPITE THE PROSECUTION'S FAILURE TO PROVE HIS GUILT BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT. 10
The accused posited that AAA's testimony was incredible, because it was physically impossible for a man lying on his side to insert his penis into a woman vigorously kicking and pushing him away; that the rape was also improbable to commit inside a room in which the victim's mother was then sleeping; and that the results of the medico-legal examination were not conclusive as to the occurrence of rape, more so because there was no finding about the presence of seminal fluid.
As earlier mentioned, the CA affirmed the conviction subject to the modification of the penalty from death to reclusion perpetua due to the intervening enactment of Republic Act No. 9346, 11 to wit:
WHEREFORE, premises considered, this Court failing to see any serious and reversible error on the part of the trial court when it convicted accused-appellant Elino Beltran Arcayos, his conviction of the crime of Rape is affirmed. In view of the foregoing disquisitions, the assailed August 15, 2005 Decision is hereby modified by reducing the penalty for accused-appellant's crime to reclusion perpetua, and by requiring him to pay AAA the amount of P75,000.00 as and by way of civil indemnification.
SO ORDERED. 12
The accused has appealed to us, still insisting that the State did not establish his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Ruling
We affirm the conviction but modify the award of damages.
To start with, it was not improbable for the accused to commit the rape inside the same room in which his wife had also been sleeping. Rape is not a crime that can be committed only in seclusion. 13 Indeed, there have been instances of rape being perpetrated in narrow places where other persons were sleeping nearby, even in the same bedroom where the wife of the rapist slumbered while he forced himself on his own daughter. 14 This is because of the nature of rape as possible of consummation in only a brief moment on account of the perpetrator's anxiety over its discovery. 15 Moreover, the commission of rape is often facilitated by intimidation and threat of immediate harm to the victim or her family, which was what happened here where the active threat of her knife-wielding father effectively smothered the resistance of AAA. TSDHCc
Secondly, the awkward position of the accused lying sidewise in relation to AAA who was then pushing and kicking him away did not render his commission of rape physically impossible. His contention was argumentative at best, because he tendered no evidence showing that their supposedly awkward position at the start (assuming it was so) was their position all throughout the time that he was forcing himself on her. On the contrary, human experience has shown that any awkwardness in relative physical position has not deterred a lecherous male from committing rape because he can contort his physique if only to satisfy his lust. It should further be observed that the matter was but a minor one that did not diminish the credibility of her testimony against the accused. Indeed, the linchpin of her testimony was that the accused had raped her. 16
Thirdly, that the accused opted not to testify or present any witness or evidence in his own defense was the most telling circumstance. He merely manifested that his guilt had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt. Such stance was fatal to his cause, considering that it had meanwhile become his burden to adduce credible and strong evidence of his lack of authorship of the crime in the face of AAA's unwavering testimony and positive identification of him, her own father, as the rapist.
Finally, we affirm the P75,000.00 allowed as civil indemnity, but increase the award for moral damages from P50,000.00 to P75,000.00 in keeping with prevailing jurisprudence. 17 In addition, P30,000.00 is awarded as exemplary damages considering the attendance of the aggravating circumstances of relationship and minority. 18
WHEREFORE, the Court AFFIRMS the decision promulgated on February 20, 2008, subject to the MODIFICATION that the amount of moral damages is increased to P75,000.00, and that exemplary damages in the amount of P30,000.00 are additionally awarded. The civil indemnity of P75,000.00 is maintained.
Costs to be paid by the appellant.
SO ORDERED."
Very truly yours,
EDGAR O. ARICHETADivision Clerk of Court
By:
(SGD.) LIBRADA C. BUENADeputy Division Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1.Rollo, pp. 2-17; penned by Associate Justice Rosmari D. Carandang, with Associate Justice Marina L. Buzon (retired) and Associate Justice Mariflor P. Punzalan Castillo concurring.
2.Records, p. 10.
3.The real names of the victim and of the members of her immediate family are withheld pursuant to Republic Act No. 7610 and Republic Act No. 9262. See People v. Cabalquinto, G.R. No. 167693, September 19, 2006, 502 SCRA 419.
4.Records, pp. 1-2.
5.TSN dated May 27, 1999, pp. 6-22.
6.Id. at 31-34.
7.Records, p. 4.
8.Id. at 33.
9.CA rollo, p. 7.
10.Id. at 55.
11.An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines.
12.Rollo, p. 16.
13.People v. Arraz, G.R. No. 183696, October 24, 2008, 570 SCRA 136, 146.
14.People v. Mariano, G.R. No. 168693, June 19, 2009, 590 SCRA 74, 89-90; People v. Evina, G.R. Nos. 124830-31, June 27, 2003, 405 SCRA 152, 163.
15.People v. Cula, G.R. No. 133146, March 28, 2000, 329 SCRA 101, 111-112.
16.People v. Cabudbod, G.R. No. 176348, April 16, 2009, 585 SCRA 499, 509.
17.People v. Aboganda, G.R. No. 183565, April 8, 2009, 585 SCRA 1, 11.
18.People v. Dadulla, G.R. No. 172321, February 9, 2011, 642 SCRA 432, 446.