QuestionsQuestions (Republic Act No. 8353)
Rape is reclassified as a “Crime Against Persons” under Title Eight of Act No. 3815 (Revised Penal Code), with a new Chapter Three on Rape (Articles 266-A to 266-D).
Carnal knowledge of a woman is rape if committed through (a) force, threat, or intimidation; (b) when the offended party is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious; (c) by fraudulent machination or grave abuse of authority; or (d) when the offended party is under 12 years of age or is demented, even if none of the above circumstances are present.
Any person, under any of the circumstances in Article 266-A(1), who commits an act of sexual assault by inserting his penis into another person’s mouth or anal orifice, or any instrument or object into the genital or anal orifice of another person.
Article 266-A(2) applies when the act of sexual assault is committed under “any of the circumstances mentioned in paragraph 1.” The qualifying circumstances must therefore be present.
Rape under Article 266-A(1) is punished by reclusion perpetua.
When committed with the use of a deadly weapon or by two or more persons, the penalty becomes reclusion perpetua to death.
The penalty is reclusion perpetua to death.
The penalty is reclusion perpetua to death.
The penalty is death.
Examples include: (1) victim under 18 and offender is a parent/ascendant/step-parent/guardian/relative within 3rd civil degree or common-law spouse of the victim’s parent; (2) victim under custody of police/military authorities or law enforcement or penal institution; (3) victim is a child below 7 years old; (4) offender knows he is afflicted with HIV/AIDS or any sexually transmissible disease and transmits it to the victim; among others.
Rape under Article 266-A(2) is punished by prision mayor.
The penalty becomes prision mayor to reclusion temporal.
The subsequent valid marriage between the offender and the offended party extinguishes the criminal action or the penalty imposed.
If it is the legal husband who is the offender, the subsequent forgiveness by the wife extinguishes the criminal action or the penalty—provided the crime is not extinguished if the marriage is void ab initio.
It states that the crime shall not be extinguished and the party shall not be abated if the marriage is void ab initio.
Any physical overt act showing resistance against the act of rape in any degree, or where the offended party is situated as to be incapable of giving valid consent, may be accepted as evidence in the prosecution of the acts punished under Article 266-A.