Deplorable act

This is the tragic story of an 11-year-old girl, Anita, resulting from an act of depravity by the common law husband of her biological mother Concha, who had Anita from a previous relationship.

The culprit here is Berto, then 50 years old, who is the common law spouse of Concha. Berto was a farmer who tilled the rice field while Concha collected shrimps and shells at the nearby beach from 4 to 7 p.m.

The unfortunate incidents happened when Concha was out of their house picking shells and shrimps. After Anita was repeatedly threatened and forced by Berto to have sexual congress with him, Berto finally succeeded in forcing her to lie down on the floor and warned her that he would kill her and her mother if she called for help. Thus, Berto succeeded in having sexual intercourse with Anita. Anita cried and pleaded with him to stop. She grew fearful as she saw a knife within Berto’s reach. Then Berto threatened Anita that he would kill her and her mother if she tells her mother about what happened.

The incident occurred again a week after. Berto told Anita to lie down, penetrated her vagina and then went outside while Anita stayed in the room upstairs, crying, until Concha came home later that evening.

In the succeeding months Berto continued to rape Anita, who kept silent out of fear.

Five months later, Concha observed some changes in her daughter’s body. Anita’s breasts had swollen, she had lost her appetite and she was always sleeping. Then after two months, Anita’s belly had become noticeably bigger. She was brought to the dispensary for a pregnancy test, which showed that she was indeed pregnant.

Fearing for her life, Anita refused to reveal the identity of the father of her child. Neighbors suspected that Berto got her pregnant. When Concha asked Berto, Concha said that Berto admitted to her that he was the father of Anita’s child.

Later on, Berto and Concha went to Concha’s brother Cardo to confess the crime that he had committed against Anita. According to Cardo, Berto felt remorseful and even told Cardo to kill him to avenge Anita. Thus, Cardo immediately reported the matter to the police as Anita subsequently gave birth to a baby boy.

So Berto was charged with two counts of qualified rape under the Revised Penal Code as amended by Republic Act 8353 for willfully, unlawfully and feloniously having carnal knowledge of Anita, who was 11 years old and daughter of his common law wife Concha, through threat, intimidation and actuated by lust.

During the trial the prosecution presented Anita’s birth certificate, the laboratory report of her pregnancy test and four witnesses, namely Anita himself, her mother Concha, the doctor who administered the pregnancy test and Cardo, all of whom confirmed the above narrated incidents.

Only Berto testified for the defense and claimed that he could not have raped Anita as he was often in the rice field from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. He also refuted the confession to Cardo that he raped Anita and contested the supposed inconsistent statement of Anita on the time when the first and second rape happened and whether she was awake or asleep before the sexual molestation.

But the Regional Trial Court (RTC) found Berto guilty beyond reasonable doubt of two counts of qualified rape and imposed upon him the penalty of reclusion perpetua for each rape, to pay indemnity of P50,000 and moral damages of P10,000 for each crime. This ruling was affirmed by the Court of Appeals (CA).

But Berto still appealed to the Supreme Court (SC), contending that Anita’s testimony had so many inconsistencies and that she failed to resist the sexual aggression.

The SC, however, ruled that the RTC and the CA are correct in convicting Berto. According to the SC, the alleged inconsistencies are collateral and minor matters, which do not at all touch upon the commission of the crime nor affect Anita’s credibility. Rape victims are not expected to cherish in their memories an accurate account of the dates, the number of times and the manner they were violated.

Her failure to resist the sexual aggression and to immediately report the incidents to the authorities or to her mother does not undermine her credibility. The silence of the rape victim does not negate her sexual molestation or make her charge baseless, untrue or fabricated.

A minor cannot be expected to act like an adult or a mature and experienced woman who would have the courage and intelligence to disregard the threat to her life and complain immediately that she had been sexually assaulted.

Raping a daughter destroys the purity of a father-daughter relationship. It shatters her dignity and destroys her ability to trust her elder in charge of her. In view of the depravity of the acts of Berto, the amount awarded to Anita for civil indemnity is increased to P100,000 moral damages and exemplary damages also to P100,000 each. (People vs. Entrampas G.R. No. 212161, March 29, 2017)