Case Digest: People of the Philippines vs. Ruben Corpuz y Simon

G.R. No. 175836                30 January 2009

FACTS:

For several months, the victim, a minor below 18 years of age, had been raped multiple times by herein appellant who is the live-in partner of the victim’s mother.  He would do so with threats that he would kill the victim and her mother if she would not succumb to his desires.  The victim kept the incidents to herself until she noticed that her menstruation stopped, fearing pregnancy.  It was found through examinations that the victim had old hymenal lacerations.  The appellant admitted to having sexual intercourse with the victim, but claimed that he never used force.

ISSUE:

Whether the qualifying circumstance of relationship is to be appreciated in favour of the victim in order to qualify said offense from simple rape to qualified rape.

RULING:

To obtain qualified rape, the minority of the victim and her relationship with the offender must be both alleged in the Information and proved with certainty.  Minority had been alleged and proved.  The stepfather-stepdaughter relationship as a qualifying circumstance presupposes that the victim’s mother and the accused contracted marriage.  The prosecution, however, did not present proof to support this.  What appellant claimed is that he and the victim’s mother were merely common-law spouses, which would also qualify the offense.  Since no proof on the relationship was alleged in the Information, simple rape cannot be qualified.  Therefore, it was held that appellant committed six counts of simple rape with the penalty of reclusion perpetua. 

Case Digest: People of the Philippines vs. Edwin Gayeta y Roblo alias “Freddie”

G.R. No. 171654                17 December 2008

Ponente: Torres, Jr., J.

FACTS:

While spouses Benjamin and Conchita were drinking tuba in their home, two armed men barged into their house and declared a hold-up who were later identified as herein appellant and one Reano.  Benjamin was kicked and boxed until the latter bled and lost consciousness, by which Conchita surrendered P2,500.  The two armed men then left and barged into another couple’s home and demanded them for money.  The wife, accompanied by the appellant, went to their store to get money.  In the store, the appellant forced the wife to have sexual intercourse with him.  After they had returned to their home, she told her husband that she had been sexually abused.  The husband had an altercation with the two perpetrators which resulted in him being hit on the shoulder with a bullet.

The two denied that they took part in the crime claiming that it was physically impossible for them to be at the scene of the crime for Gayeta was in Muntinlupa doing his rounds as a member of the Voluntary Lakas Brigade, while Reano was in another town.

ISSUE:  

Whether the accused was guilty of the crimes of robbery and robbery with rape with his presentation of the Voluntary Lakas logbook.

RULING:

The inherently weak alibi presented by the accused does not hold a stronger bearing as compared to the positive identification made by the prosecution witnesses which is given full faith by both the trial court and the Court of Appeals.  Furthermore, presented logbook was neither authenticated nor identified by the persons who supposedly issued them. 

The aggravating circumstance of dwelling was properly appreciated in both robbery and robbery with rape.  There being no evidence to show that the accused purposely sought nighttime to facilitate the commission of the offense, this circumstance was ruled out.  The original penalty of death is therefore reduced to reclusion perpetua with no eligibility for parole.