Case Digest (G.R. No. 139211)
Facts:
People of the Philippines v. XXX alias Baby, G.R. No. 139211, February 12, 2003, Supreme Court En Banc, Corona, J., writing for the Court.The prosecution accused appellant XXX (the victim’s maternal uncle) of raping his four‑year‑old niece AAA on November 2, 1996, in Sitio ___, Barangay ___, Merida, Leyte. The victim’s parents had left their three young children unsupervised to light candles at the cemetery; appellant encountered the children, ordered the two older siblings to pasture goats, and remained alone with AAA. An eyewitness (the victim’s paternal uncle) arrived and peeped through an open window, saw appellant with pants and briefs lowered mounted on the naked child, and observed the appellant flee when noticed.
The victim was taken home crying; she later told her mother that her uncle had removed her panties, made her lie down and inserted his penis into her vagina. The family apprehended appellant at a neighbor’s party and brought him to the barangay and then to the municipal police; he allegedly admitted the act, blaming drunkenness. On November 4, 1996, Dr. Jane Grace Solana examined AAA and reported contusions on the labia minora and vaginal pain, concluding the injuries were consistent with the alleged assault.
Appellant was charged with rape under Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code as amended by R.A. No. 7659. At trial before the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Ormoc City, Branch 35, the prosecution presented four witnesses (the eyewitness, Dr. Solana, and the victim’s parents). The defense presented appellant and a cousin who testified to an alibi/alternative timeline and to appellant’s attendance at a party that evening; appellant admitted ordering the older children out but denied the rape, claiming he only cradled the victim.
On April 30, 1999, the RTC convicted appellant of rape and imposed the death penalty, finding the qualifying circumstances that the victim was under eighteen and the offender a relative within the third civil degree and that the victim was below seven years old. The RTC also awarded P50,000 civil indemnity.
The case reached the Supreme Court by the automatic review of a dea...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Was the prosecution’s failure to present the child‑victim on the witness stand equivalent to willful suppression of evidence warranting an adverse presumption against the prosecution?
- Were the statements of the victim to her parents and the parents’ testimony admissible or inadmissible hearsay?
- Was the eyewitness testimony of a relative credible and sufficient to establish the commission of rape?
- Did the evidence establish consummated rape?
- Were the qualifying circumstances that would support imposition of the death penalty—(a) that the offender was a relative within the third civil degree, and (b) that the vic...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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