GR 40995; (June, 1980) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-40995 June 25, 1980
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. EULALIO BOHOS, ET AL., defendant-appellant.
FACTS
On the evening of September 17, 1966, sixteen-year-old Myrna de la Vega was walking home alone in Lanao del Norte after watching a movie. She was accosted by four men, including appellant Eulalio Bohos. They forcibly stopped a passing cargo truck, dragged her aboard, and immediately subjected her to sexual assault. The group then took her to a house in another barrio, where over the course of that night and the following morning, the four men took turns raping her. In total, she was violated seventeen times. She was rescued the next afternoon by local authorities. Bohos was charged with the complex crime of forcible abduction with rape.
ISSUE
Whether the trial court correctly imposed multiple death penalties for the thirteen separate acts of rape committed during the forcible abduction.
RULING
The Supreme Court modified the trial court’s decision. While it affirmed Bohos’s guilt for the complex crime of forcible abduction with rape, it held that only one penalty of death should be imposed. The legal logic is rooted in the concept of a continuous crime (delito continuado). The information specifically charged the accused with the single complex crime of forcible abduction with rape. The multiple acts of rape, though numerous, were not individually alleged as separate counts in the complaint. Instead, they were committed as a continuation of a single criminal impulse or purpose arising from the initial forcible abduction. Jurisprudence, such as U.S. vs. Camiloy and People vs. Pineda, establishes that when a victim is abducted and subsequently raped multiple times by the abductors, the series of rapes are absorbed into the complex crime. They constitute a single, continuous violation, not distinct crimes warranting separate penalties. The Court found the aggravating circumstances of nighttime and superior strength present, justifying the imposition of the supreme penalty. However, for the complex crime as charged, only one death sentence is legally permissible. The award of damages was sustained.