G.R. No. 90185 - People vs. Abarri y Batting

Case Summary (G.R. No. 90185)

Factual Background

The victim was Gregoria Gan y Lim, who on the evening of October 14, 1988, at about 7:30 P.M. was accosted while walking along Fourth Avenue, Kalookan City. Ernesto Abarri and Ronnie Andales each poked a knife at her neck, forced her into a fenced vacant lot, and, together with Clemente Cawaling, Conrado Estrada, and Joselito Pajalago, robbed and stripped her. The assailants tied her with torn clothing, removed valuables including a watch (P2,000.00), a necklace (P5,000.00), and P250.00 in cash, and left Andales alone with the victim. Andales then raped Gan twice. The victim later summoned help; neighbors untied her. Barangay Captain Anita Alejo encountered Abarri and Estrada at the victim’s store at about 8:30 P.M., detained them, and turned them over to the police. The victim positively identified the two. NBI Medico Legal Officer Roberto Garcia found injuries consistent with the alleged time of commission, old healed hymenal lacerations, and an hymenal opening sufficient to permit penetration by an average-sized erect male organ without producing new hymenal injury.

Procedural History

An information charged the five accused with robbery with rape and alleged conspiracy, reciting the taking of goods valued at P7,250.00 and that the robbery was committed with lewd designs culminating in nonconsensual sexual intercourse. Upon arraignment, all pleaded not guilty. The Regional Trial Court, Branch 124, Kalookan City, convicted all five on May 22, 1989 of the special complex offense of robbery with rape under paragraph two of Art. 294, Revised Penal Code, as amended, and sentenced each to reclusion perpetua, ordered indemnities and the return or value of the robbed items, and credited preventive imprisonment under Art. 29, Revised Penal Code, as amended. The accused appealed to the Supreme Court.

Evidence Presented at Trial

The prosecution relied on the victim’s in-court identification of the accused, eyewitness account of Barangay Captain Anita Alejo who confronted Abarri and Estrada at the victim’s store, and the NBI medico-legal examination. The factual narrative included the ripped blouse used to bind the victim, torn clothing, and the sequence in which several accused participated in stripping and touching the victim while Andales perpetrated the sexual intercourse. The prosecution also established the loss of specific items and the victim’s prompt complaint and identification.

Defense Contentions

The accused relied on general denial and alibi defenses. Abarri and Estrada testified they were walking home at about 8:00 P.M. and were accosted by barangay tanod and later assaulted at the Binondo Police Station into confessing. Cawaling, Pajalago, and Andales claimed they were at their respective homes and asserted coercion by police to obtain admissions. Andales further claimed he met his co-accused only in the city jail.

Legal Standards Applied

The Court applied the established requisites for alibi found in People v. Gaguban, G.R. No. 96287, April 25, 1994, and People v. Empleo, 226 SCRA 454 (1993): the accused must show nonpresence at the scene and physical impossibility of being there. The Court also invoked the rule that conspiracy may be inferred from conduct demonstrating a common understanding, citing People v. Uy, 206 SCRA 270 (1992) and People v. Dela Cruz, 190 SCRA 328 (1990). The test for lewd designs permits inference from the nature of acts and surrounding circumstances, per People v. Balbas, 129 Phil. 358 (1967).

Court’s Findings on Conspiracy and Lewd Designs

The Court found the evidence sufficient to infer a common intent to rob and to commit acts of lasciviousness from the conduct of the accused. Abarri and Andales inflicted force by displaying knives and dragging the victim to the vacant lot. The other accused followed, assisted in divesting the victim of clothing and valuables, and participated in touching her. Those acts supported convictions for robbery and for acts of lasciviousness insofar as they were complicit in the stripping, binding, and touching.

Court’s Determination on Rape Liability

The Court distinguished the sexual intercourse from the earlier acts of lasciviousness and found that the record did not show that the other accused knew of or participated in the subsequent rape committed by Andales when left alone with the victim. Citing People v. Hamiana, 89 Phil. 225 (1951), the Court held that where the rape was committed without the knowledge or participation of co-robbers, only the actual rapist is guilty of rape. Consequently, the trial court erred in convicting all appellants of robbery with rape.

Inducement and Moral Ascendancy

The Court rejected the prosecution’s reliance on a remark by Cawaling to Andales as constituting inducement or rendering Cawaling a principal in the rape. The Court applied the principle in People v. Canial, 46 SCRA 634 (1972) and People v. Balderama, 226 SCRA 537 (1993) that words amount to inducement only when uttered in such manner and by such a person as to become the determining cause of the crime, and when the inducer exerts overpowering moral ascendancy over the actor. The record did not show such ascendancy or that the remark was the cause of the rape.

Modified Convictions and Sentences

The Supreme Court modified the trial court’s judgment. It found Ernesto Abarri, Clemente Cawaling, Conrado Estrada, and Joselito Pajalago guilty beyond reasonable doubt of separate crimes of robbery and of acts of lasciviousness. For acts of lasciviousness each was sentenced to the indeterminate penalty of six months of arresto mayor as minimum to six years of prision correccional as maximum, and ordered to indemnify Gregoria Gan jointly and severally in

Case Syllabus (G.R. No. 90185)

Parties and Procedural Posture

People of the Philippines was the plaintiff-appellee in Criminal Case No. C-31521 prosecuted in the Regional Trial Court, Branch 124, Kalookan City.
Ernesto Abarri y Batting, Clemente Cawaling y Cirinio, Conrado Estrada y Cawaling, Joselito Pajalago y Gonzales, and Ronnie Andales y Romirosa were the accused-appellants who pleaded not guilty at arraignment.
The trial court rendered judgment on May 22, 1989, convicting all accused as co-principals of robbery with rape under paragraph 2 of Art. 294, Revised Penal Code, as amended, and imposed the penalty of reclusion perpetua on each.
The accused appealed to the Supreme Court, First Division, which rendered the decision reported at 312 Phil. 46 with opinion by QUIASON, J.

Key Factual Allegations

The incident occurred on October 14, 1988, at about 7:30 P.M. along 4th Avenue, Kalookan City, when two men stopped the victim, Gregoria Gan y Lim, and threatened her with knives.
Abarri and Andales forcibly brought the victim into a fenced vacant lot where three other accused subsequently joined them.
The assailants tore the victim's blouse, bound her mouth and limbs with torn cloth, removed her clothing, touched her private parts, and took a gold necklace valued at P5,000, a lady's wristwatch valued at P2,000, and cash of P250, totaling P7,250.
After the other accused left, Andales remained and raped the victim twice before departing.
Neighbors later rescued the victim, and Barangay Captain Anita Alejo apprehended Abarri and Estrada at the victim's store after a resident reported the store door partly open.

Evidence and Forensic Findings

The victim positively identified Abarri and Andales at the police station as among those who assaulted and robbed her.
Barangay Captain Alejo testified to finding Abarri and Estrada at the partly opened store and to Abarri's admission that he had forcibly brought the victim to the vacant lot.
NBI Medico-Legal Officer Roberto Garcia found external injuries consistent in age with the alleged time of the assault, old healed lacerations on the hymen, and an hymenal opening large enough to admit an average-sized erect male organ without producing new injury.

Defense Contentions

The accused advanced alibi and general denial as defenses, asserting that each was elsewhere at the time of the offense.
Abarri and Estrada claimed they were returning from work and were accosted and coerced by barangay tanods and police into admissions.
Cawaling, Pajalago, and Andales claimed presence in their respective homes and alleged police coercion or ignorance of co-accused prior to detention.

Legal Issues Presented

Whether the prosecution established conspiracy and common intent among the accused to commit robbery and sexual offenses.
Whether all accused could be convicted as co-principals of robbery with rape, or whether only some participants were guilty of robbery and lesser sexual offenses.
Whether the defense of alibi was adequ