THIRD DIVISION
[G.R. No. 198312. January 15, 2014.]
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. ROBERTO CUSTODIO, ALIAS RUDY AND PUWEK, accused-appellant.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, Third Division, issued a Resolution dated January 15, 2014, which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 198312 (People of the Philippines v. Roberto Custodio, alias Rudy and Puwek). — The victim LG 1 in this case and accused-appellant Roberto Custodio, alias Rudy and Puwek, lived in the same barangay in Baler, Aurora. LG called him "Lolo Custodio."
LG, 13 years of age and suffering from slight mental retardation, testified that accused Custodio sexually assaulted her on five occasions. She was peddling vegetables during the first time when he beckoned her to come inside his house. Once there, he made her lie down in the bedroom, tied her hands, undressed her, and had carnal knowledge of her. The second time was in the toilet near his house where LG happened to be urinating. He sexually ravished her while she was in sitting position.
The third incident happened alongside a stream near accused Custodio's house. He tied LG's ankles with a rope, undressed her, and had sex with her. At the fourth incident, she was walking Home after harvesting coconuts in a nearby plantation when he suddenly appeared beside her and began caressing her breast. He promptly pushed her aside, however, when the plantation owner arrived. The fifth incident transpired when, while she was crossing a bridge, he grabbed her and forcibly took her under the bridge and sexually abused her in standing position. She testified that he had threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone about the rape. He also instructed her to point to her uncle as the culprit if anyone found out about it.
The Public Prosecutor charged accused Custodio with five counts of rape under Article 266-A of the Revised Penal Code in relation to Republic Act 7610 before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Baler, Aurora in Criminal Cases 3737 to 3741.
In his defense, accused Custodio insisted that he did not know the victim and that at the time of the alleged rape incidents, he had been home attending to his sick wife who was suffering from a lung disease that began in January 2007 and lasted until she died in April 2007. CSEHcT
On August 15, 2008 the RTC found accused Custodio guilty of four counts of rape in Criminal Cases 3737, 3738, 3739, and 3741 and accordingly sentenced him to suffer reclusion perpetua for each count together with its accessory penalties. The RTC likewise ordered him to pay LG P50,000.00 as civil indemnity and P50,000.00 as moral damages for each count of rape, and to pay the costs. It acquitted him of the charge in Criminal Case 3740, the fourth charge, for failure of the prosecution to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Accused Custodio appealed to the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. CR-HC 03697. On February 2, 2011 the CA affirmed with modification the RTC Decision by increasing the P50,000.00 moral damages and P50,000.00 civil indemnity awarded to LG for each rape case to P75,000.00 moral damages and P75,000.00 civil indemnity also for each case. 2 Custodio appealed to this Court.
Accused Custodio points out that, given LG's weak state of mind, she was incapable of giving a credible testimony. Further, he claimed that the medical examination failed to identify him as the perpetrator. It merely confirmed the fact that LG had prior sexual experiences.
But accused Custodio himself admitted that LG's testimony had been clear and straightforward. His objection centered on the alleged inconsistency of such flawless narration with her mental state. Mental retardation pes se, however, is not a ground for disqualifying a witness. A person with such mental flaw is a competent witness for as long as he could perceive and is capable of making known his perception to others. 3 Coherence alone, not the witness' mental state, is the deciding factor of competence. Besides, as the CA observed, the matter of which LG testified was not rocket science that required a high IQ level. In fact, she adequately related, in simple words, how Custodio sexually violated her on at least four occasions. Indeed, a psychiatrist testified that she was only slightly mentally retarded, with no mental aberration, and could stand trial and answer questions in Ilocano or Tagalog. 4
Accused Custodio makes capital of the lack of evidence of medical examination of LG. But such is not indispensable in a prosecution for rape. The victim's testimony alone, if credible, is sufficient for establishing guilt. 5
The Court finds no reason to depart from the findings of the courts below especially since the trial court was in the best position to ascertain the credibility of the complainant's testimonies. What is more, the CA exhaustively disposed of all the arguments that accused Custodio raised, dispensing with the need to discuss them further.
WHEREFORE, the Court AFFIRMS the Decision of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. CR-HC 03697 dated February 2, 2011 with MODIFICATIONS. The Court INCREASES for each count of rape, the award of moral damages to P100,000.00 and civil indemnity to P100,000.00, and ADDSan award of exemplary damages of P30,000.00 6 also for each count. TADaES
SO ORDERED."
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) LUCITA ABJELINA SORIANODivision Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1. The victim's real name is withheld pursuant to the directive in People v. Cabalquinto (533 Phil. 703 [2006]), implementing R.A. 7610 ("Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act") and R.A. 9262 ("Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004").
2. Penned by Justice Ramon M. Bato, Jr. and concurred in by Justices Juan Q. Enriquez, Jr. and Florito S. Macalino.
3. People v. Jackson, 451 Phil. 610, 619 (2003).
4. CA Decision, rollo, p. 8, citing TSN, January 16, 2008, p. 5.
5. Id. at 9, citing People v. Logmao, 414 Phil. 378, 387 (2001).
6. People v. Fontanilla, G.R. No. 177743, January 25, 2012, 664 SCRA 150, 164.