Title
People vs. Dadulla y Capanas
Case
G.R. No. 172321
Decision Date
Feb 9, 2011
Father convicted of simple rape and acts of lasciviousness against daughter; civil liabilities modified to include exemplary damages.
rape
attempted rape
acts of lasciviousness
A

Case Summary (G.R. No. 172321)

Factual Background

On the evening of January 15, 1998, AAA, then sleeping in a bedroom she shared with her five younger siblings and their father, was awakened by someone undressing her. She identified the person as her father, the accused. AAA resisted while the accused threatened her with a bladed weapon and threatened to kill her if she shouted. AAA testified that he forcibly kissed her, molested her breasts and private parts, and had carnal knowledge of her. She recounted an earlier sexual assault by the same person on February 14, 1992. On the night of January 22, 1998, AAA again awoke to find her zipper and buttons open and her father touching her. She covered herself with a blanket and hid under the wooden bed when he began forcibly opening her shorts; he held her hands and tried to pull her out but she evaded him. Her younger sister, BBB, overheard fragments of the incident and later assisted AAA in reporting the matter to their uncle and the barangay. A medical examination produced evidence of a deep healed hymenal laceration at the five o’clock position.

Charges

The accused was charged by separate informations in the RTC. In Criminal Case No. 98-2304-MK he was charged with rape allegedly committed on or about January 15, 1998, “by means of threats, force and intimidation” upon AAA. In Criminal Case No. 98-2305-MK he was charged with attempted rape allegedly committed on or about January 22, 1998, “by means of force, violence and intimidation and with lewd design,” the information alleging an overt commencement of the crime but stoppage by causes other than his own spontaneous desistance.

Evidence and Parties’ Contentions at Trial

The prosecution relied on AAA’s sworn testimony, BBB’s corroborative account, and the medical finding of healed hymenal laceration. AAA’s testimony recounted the January 15 forced intercourse and the January 22 forcible touching, unfastening of her shorts, and the attempt to pull her from under the bed. The accused categorically denied the sexual assaults. He asserted that on January 15 AAA and BBB had not been at home for several hours, that on January 22 he only scolded AAA and later struck her face and told her to leave the house, and that AAA had lost virginity to other men in 1992 and 1993.

Trial Court Proceedings

The RTC found the accused guilty on March 24, 1999. It convicted him of rape in Criminal Case No. 98-2304-MK and imposed the death penalty, and it convicted him of attempted rape in Criminal Case No. 98-2305-MK imposing an indeterminate penalty of four years, nine months, and eleven days to five years, four months, and twenty days of prision correccional. The RTC awarded civil indemnity and moral damages to the victim. The RTC, however, did not articulate a discrete analysis explaining why the January 22 incident amounted to attempted rape rather than a lesser offense.

Court of Appeals Decision

On appeal the accused challenged the imposition of the death penalty and the conviction for attempted rape. The Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions but modified the penalties in a decision promulgated January 20, 2006. The CA held that the information in Criminal Case No. 98-2304-MK did not allege any qualifying circumstance of relationship, so the accused could not be convicted of qualified rape even if relationship was proven at trial; consequently the proper conviction was for simple rape with the penalty of reclusion perpetua rather than death. As to Criminal Case No. 98-2305-MK, the CA concluded that the accused’s acts of opening AAA’s zipper and buttons, touching her, and trying to pull her from under the bed manifested lewd design but did not establish the specific intent to consummate sexual intercourse; hence the offense was acts of lasciviousness, not attempted rape. The CA adjusted the indeterminate penalty for acts of lasciviousness to a minimum of six months of arresto mayor and a maximum of four years and two months of prision correccional, and it fixed moral and civil damages.

Issues Presented to the Supreme Court

The central issues before the Supreme Court were whether the accused’s criminal liability was correctly determined and quantified, whether the RTC’s omission in stating its legal basis vitiated the conviction, and whether civil damages should be modified for the presence of aggravating circumstances established at trial despite their nonallegation in the information.

Supreme Court Ruling

The Court sustained the convictions but corrected the award of civil liability. The Court affirmed the CA’s finding that the accused committed simple rape on January 15, 1998, and that his acts on January 22, 1998 constituted acts of lasciviousness rather than attempted rape. The Court held that the RTC’s failure to expound why it deemed the January 22 incident attempted rape contravened Section 14, Article VIII and Section 1, Rule 120, but that the omission did not invalidate the conviction because the CA had properly reformed the error. The Court modified the civil liabilities to include exemplary damages of P30,000 for the rape conviction and P10,000 for the acts of lasciviousness conviction, while otherwise affirming the CA decision.

Legal Basis and Reasoning on Criminal Liability

The Court accepted AAA’s testimony as credible and sufficient to establish the elements of rape for the January 15 incident and acts of lasciviousness for the January 22 incident. The Court explained that Sec. 8, Rule 110 requires that qualifying and aggravating circumstances be specifically alleged in the information, and that this requirement is pro reo and retroactively applied as established in People v. Mondijar and People v. Marquez. Therefore, even if relationship as a qualifying circumstance was proven at trial, its nonallegation in the information precluded conviction for the graver offense of qualified rape. The Court relied on People v. Collado and its progeny to distinguish attempted rape from acts of lasciviousness, noting that attempted rape requires an intent to lie with the woman as evidenced by external acts; absent proof of a definite intent to consummate intercourse, the acts were only lascivious. The Court further held that the RTC’s imposition of an indeterminate minimum within prision correccional violated the Indeterminate Sentence Law, which requires the minimum to be within the

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