GR 81403; (December, 1989) (Digest)
G.R. No. 81403 December 20, 1989
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee vs. BONIFACIO ANDO, JR., defendant-appellant.
FACTS
The accused, Captain Bonifacio Ando, Jr., was the superior officer of Corporal Ricardo Villanueva. On August 11, 1985, while traveling with his aide, Corporal Artemio Fabi, Ando decided to stay overnight at the Villanueva residence in Calbayog City. Corporal Villanueva was not home, leaving only his wife, Martina. After supper, Ando suddenly grabbed Martina, twisted her arms, and covered her mouth and nose with a strong-smelling substance on cotton. He forcibly dragged her to a bedroom despite Fabi’s three admonitions to stop. Martina, feeling weak and dizzy, was threatened with death. Ando then removed her panty, tore it, and had sexual intercourse with her against her will. After the first act, he wiped her genitalia and commenced a second act but stopped upon hearing a motorcycle. He dressed her and threatened to kill her and her children if she reported the incident. Martina revealed the rape to her husband only after Ando and Fabi departed the next morning. A medical examination confirmed a superficial laceration in her vaginal canal.
ISSUE
The core issue is whether the prosecution evidence, amidst the appellant’s challenges to its credibility, sufficiently proves the crime of rape beyond reasonable doubt.
RULING
The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction. The Court meticulously dismantled the appellant’s arguments against credibility. The fact that the victim was menstruating did not negate rape, as it did not deter the appellant’s “bestial desire.” The presence of his aide, Fabi, who testified to the forcible dragging and his own futile admonitions, did not invalidate the charge but instead corroborated the use of force and intimidation. The Court found that the threat of death, coupled with the victim being weakened by the chemical substance, rendered her incapable of further resistance or outcry, explaining the lack of immediate struggle heard by others in the vicinity.
The Court rejected the appellant’s contradictory posture of both denying intercourse and alleging consensual sex, noting this as an “unconscious emergence of his ambivalent posture.” Martina’s composed demeanor afterward was attributed to overwhelming fear of the appellant’s threats and a potential violent confrontation with her husband. The absence of spermatozoa in the medical report was inconsequential, as penetration, not emission, is the essential act of rape, and the corroborating laceration was present. The trial judge’s ability to decide based on the transcript, despite not hearing the prosecution witnesses personally, was upheld as he could assess the appellant’s testimony against the recorded evidence. The Court found the prosecution’s evidence overwhelming, depicting a superior officer exploiting his authority and his subordinate’s hospitality to commit rape, thereby overturning the presumption of innocence. The decision was affirmed with an increase in indemnity to P30,000.