Facts:
On September 14, 2002, at Manila,
VON visited the house of accused
Ermilito Alegre y Lamoste because she knew Alegre and his family. Alegre owned the house where VON and her relatives were living and, during the visit, invited VON to have drinks inside a jeep. After VON finished a small bottle of gin pomelo, she returned to her relatives’ quarters and told her cousin she was going home; however, as she stepped out, Alegre asked her to meet his “girl friends.” Alegre and VON walked along a nearby street and eventually reached a fenced house. Alegre climbed the fence and told VON to do likewise, claiming that his girl friends were inside. When VON entered, the house was empty; she immediately went out when Alegre did not respond to her query. As she attempted to climb over the fence to reach the street, Alegre warned her that barangay tanods might see her. When VON did not heed the warning, Alegre punched her on the back and repeatedly stabbed her with an ice pick until she fell to the ground on her back. Alegre then tore her polo and sando and stripped her of shorts and underwear. VON resisted by grabbing the ice pick, but Alegre choked her, causing her to drop the weapon. Alegre picked it up and sexually ravished her; she felt pain during the assault. After the rape, Alegre stabbed her again on her chest and arms. When VON turned over and faced the ground, Alegre stopped assaulting her. VON did not move for some time, but when she coughed, Alegre returned and stabbed her three times on the back; she suppressed her cough so that he would not return. Still unable to stand due to muscle cramps in her left leg, VON shouted for help but no one responded. In the early morning of September 15, 2002, she spotted two barangay tanods who heard her shouts. The barangay kagawad, Romeo dela Cruz, testified that at about 2:00 a.m. on September 15, 2002, he received a call about shouts for help from an abandoned house, and he found VON lying naked on the ground, covered with mud and blood. He assisted in bringing her to Lourdes Hospital for life-saving treatment and then to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) for surgery. Dr. Edwin Paul Lagapa attended VON at PGH and found
18 stab wounds all over her body, with
four piercing her heart, caused by a very small, fine pointed instrument; he testified that VON could have died without timely treatment and that he performed several life-saving operations. Dr. Claire Aguirre conducted a gynecological examination and found several abrasions and hymenal lacerations; she found no sperm and explained that the lacerations could take at least seven days to heal. Alegre was charged before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Manila with
frustrated murder in Criminal Case 03-213343 and
qualified rape in Criminal Case 03-213344. For his defense, Alegre invoked
alibi, claiming that on September 14, 2002, he was in Abad Santos, Bacood, Sta. Mesa with the owner of a jeepney he was repairing; he bathes, rode with his brother in a jeepney driven by the latter, returned home at about 10:30 p.m., ate, then watched television at his sister’s house near his brother’s house. He denied that VON’s version was correct, insisting that it was VON who invited him to drink, and that they pooled money to buy gin pomelo which they drank in front of his sister’s house. He claimed that at 4:30 a.m. on September 15, 2002—about three hours after he left VON—he went with his brother to Mindoro as planned, where his uncle Ronald Rom arrested him without a warrant for a robbery case, and later he learned at the police precinct that he was being charged with frustrated murder and rape. He contended that VON filed the cases in retaliation for a stabbing he allegedly committed against her cousin in the past and that his brother earlier accused him of theft of a VCD player, resulting in his arrest and detention. On September 25, 2006, the RTC convicted Alegre beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced him to a minimum indeterminate penalty of
nine years and four months of
prision mayor in its medium period to
seventeen years and four months of
reclusion temporal in its medium period for frustrated murder, and it ordered him to pay VON
P25,000.00 as moral damages and
P25,000.00 as temperate damages. For qualified rape, the RTC imposed
reclusion perpetua and ordered payment of
P50,000.00 as civil indemnity and
P50,000.00 as moral damages. On April 28, 2008, the Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed the RTC in toto. Alegre appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the CA erred in upholding the sufficiency of the evidence for the rape and near-murder allegations.
Issues:
Whether the Court of Appeals erred in affirming the RTC’s finding that there was sufficient evidence to show that
Alegre raped and nearly murdered
VON as she claimed.
Ruling:
Ratio:
Doctrine: