G.R. No. 116437 - People vs. Andan y Herdez

People of the Philippines as Plaintiff-Appellee and accused-appellant Pablito Andan y Hernandez @ Bobby.
Information dated March 11, 1994 charged accused-appellant with rape with homicide allegedly committed on or about February 19, 1994 in the municipality and province specified in the Information.

Victim AAA, age twenty and a second-year college student, left home on February 19, 1994 to go to her school dormitory to prepare for final examinations; she wore a striped blouse and faded denim pants and carried two bags and more than P2,000.00 in cash.
Accused-appellant invited AAA into his house under the pretext of taking his wife's grandmother's blood pressure; AAA entered believing the old woman was a distant relative.
Accused-appellant allegedly struck AAA in the abdomen, carried her to the kitchen, and raped her; he then placed her unconscious in an old toilet at the back of the house until dark.
At night appellant allegedly dragged the unconscious AAA to the backyard, lifted and draped her body over a six-foot concrete fence, struck her head with a piece of concrete block when she moved, then pulled her to the vacant lot and abandoned her body.

AAA's body was discovered on February 20, 1994 at about eleven in the morning; she was naked from the chest down with clothes pulled toward her neck; a panty with a sanitary napkin was nearby.
First autopsy by Dr. (name redacted) recorded multiple abrasions, contusions, lacerations, fractures of facial bones, cerebral contusions, minimal blood in external genitalia, and laboratory smear negative for spermatozoa; cause of death listed as cardiorespiratory arrest due to cerebral contusions due to traumatic injuries to the face.
A second autopsy by an NBI medico-legal officer on March 1, 1994 found fresh lacerations of the hymen at three and six o'clock with clotted blood, suggesting forcible insertion or penetration while the victim was alive.

Police recovered a broken piece of concrete block stained with apparent blood near where the body was found and identified a pair of denim pants and a pair of shoes as AAA's.
Search of accused-appellant's house uncovered bloodstains on the pigpen wall, and Romano Calma surrendered pornographic pictures and clothing items (wet short pants, towel, wet T-shirt) found in the laundry hamper and alleged to belong to appellant.
At the house the police obtained from under a flower pot two bags later identified as belonging to AAA; photographs and videotapes were made of appellant and two other suspects holding the bags.

Police traced appellant to his parents' house on February 24, 1994 at about eleven P.M., took him to police headquarters and interrogated him; he initially denied knowledge but, when confronted with concrete block and victim's clothes and pigpen bloodstains, he relented and implicated two neighbors, claiming he was a lookout, and volunteered information on the location of the two bags.
Police took appellant to his house, where he retrieved the two bags from beneath the flower pot in the old toilet while police observed and photographed the event.
Medical/physical examination on February 25 found scratches on the neck, abrasions on chest and back, and a freshly healed wound on an index finger.
On February 25 or thereafter appellant asked Mayor xxx for a private talk; in the mayor’s office appellant twice said, “Mayor, patawarin mo ako! I will tell you the truth. I am the one who killed AAA,” first privately and then before media after the mayor opened the door; the mayor requested a lawyer but none was available and the proceedings were photographed and videotaped.
Appellant confessed in the presence of the mayor, police, media representatives, his wife and son; he admitted killing AAA, offered details, blamed pornographic materials and the devil, and volunteered to show where he hid the bags; confession was widely covered and videotaped.
Appellant was detained; on February 25 to ...(Subscriber-Only)

Whether the trial court erred in admitting and using testimonies of police investigators, reporters, and the mayor concerning appellant's alleged admission during custodial investigation without assistance of counsel in violation of Section 12, paragraphs (1) and (3) of Article III of the Constitution.
Whether the two bags recovered after appellant pointed to their location were admissible or tainted fruits of an uncounselled confession.

Whether there was evidence to support a finding of rape given initial negative smear for spermatozoa and reported absence of recent injuries to the hymen.