PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE, VS. FELIX ORTOA Y OBIA, ACCUSED-APPELLANT.

People versus Ortoa

The Case

This is the People of the Philippines against Felix Ortoa, a father charged with qualified rape of his own thirteen-year-old daughter. The case reaches us as an intermediate review of a trial court judgment convicting him and imposing death. It matters for two reasons a reviewee should hold on to: first, it states with unusual clarity how the elements of qualified rape are established — carnal knowledge, minority, and the offender's relationship to the victim — and second, it shows the Supreme Court applying the abolition of the death penalty, reducing the sentence to reclusion perpetua without possibility of parole. It is also a teaching case on the weight given to a child's testimony and on why alibi collapses against positive identification.

Procedural History

The accused was charged by Information with rape committed on or about the third day of April 2001 in Mandaluyong City. He was arraigned with the assistance of counsel and pleaded not guilty. Pre-trial was held and terminated with several stipulations, among them the identity of the accused, the minority of the victim, and the fact that accused and victim lived in the same house. Trial on the merits followed before the Regional Trial Court of Mandaluyong City, Branch 208.

The trial court rendered its Decision on 30 October 2003, finding the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of qualified rape under Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended by Republic Act Number 7659, in relation to Republic Act Number 7610. It sentenced him to death and ordered him to pay 75,000 pesos as civil indemnity, 50,000 pesos as moral damages, and 30,000 pesos as exemplary damages. Because the penalty was death, the records were transmitted to the Supreme Court for automatic review. The appeal was later transferred to the Court of Appeals pursuant to a Supreme Court en banc resolution, and the case comes to us now as an intermediate review of that conviction.

Facts

On the afternoon of 3 April 2001, the thirteen-year-old victim asked her mother and siblings to leave their small shanty in Mandaluyong so she could relieve herself. While they were at a relative's house nearby, her father, the accused, arrived and asked where the others were. He then closed the windows and the door, ordered her to undress, and when she refused, removed her shorts and panty himself. He told her to spread her legs; when she did not obey, he spread them for her, saying, "Sandali lang ito." He then mounted her and inserted his penis into her vagina, making a push and pull movement while she felt pain inside. Afterwards he told her to dress, and he opened the door and windows.

Minutes later her mother arrived and saw the accused at the door and the victim lying on the makeshift bed, seemingly on the verge of tears with her shorts hastily pulled up. The accused said he had gone home to rest because there were few customers at the barber shop. After he left, the mother asked her daughter what happened, and the girl told her. The victim testified that this was not the first abuse; it began when she was very young, and when she was twelve her father got her pregnant and made her take medicines that led to a miscarriage. The mother sought the help of the accused's employer, who arranged the arrest and investigation, and accompanied the victim to the medico-legal examination.

The medico-legal officer found deep healed lacerations at the five, seven, and nine o'clock positions, inflicted by a hard blunt object, possibly an erected male organ, more than seven days before the examination, and concluded that the subject was in a non-virgin state physically. The defense presented only the accused, who denied the charge and raised alibi, claiming he stayed at his place of work in Shaw Boulevard, which he described as very far from their house, from 1996 until his arrest in 2001. He suggested the victim and her mother were motivated by resentment over his relationship with another woman and by his strictness.

Issues

• Whether or not the trial court gravely erred in finding the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of qualified rape.
• Whether or not the testimony of the victim and her mother should be disbelieved on the ground of alleged improper motive.
• Whether or not the defense of alibi can prevail over the positive identification of the accused.
• Whether or not the penalty of death should be reduced in light of the abolition of the death penalty.

Applicable Provisions

Article 266-A of the Revised Penal Code, as amended by Republic Act Number 7659, defines and penalizes rape:

Article 266-A. When and how rape is committed. – Rape is committed by having carnal knowledge of a woman under any of the following circumstances: 1. By using force or intimidation; 2. When the woman is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious; and 3. When the woman is under twelve years of age or is demented. The crime of rape shall be punished by reclusion perpetua.

This provision supplies the elements of carnal knowledge by force or intimidation that the prosecution had to prove.

Article 266-B of the same Code qualifies the crime and prescribes the higher penalty:

The death penalty shall also be imposed if the crime of rape is committed with any of the following attendant circumstances: 1. When the victim is under eighteen (18) years of age and the offender is a parent, ascendant, step-parent, guardian, relative by consanguinity or affinity within the third civil degree, or the common-law spouse of the parent of the victim.

This is the qualifying circumstance of minority and relationship that raised the crime to qualified rape and authorized the death penalty below.

Ruling

On the first issue, the Court found no reversible error. The prosecution established the elements of qualified rape: carnal knowledge, the victim's minority, and the offender's relationship to her as her father. The Court stressed that when rape is committed by a father against his own daughter, the father's parental authority and moral ascendancy over the daughter substitutes for violence or intimidation, since a child would expectedly cower in fear and resign to the father's wicked deeds. Carnal knowledge was proved by the victim's detailed account of the push and pull movement, and the Court noted that even the slightest contact of the male sex organ with the labia suffices. Minority and relationship were established by the accused's admission during trial and by the victim's birth certificate, and the medical findings corroborated her claim.

On the second issue, the Court rejected the claim of improper motive. It reasoned that no woman, especially one of tender age, would concoct a story of defloration, allow an examination of her private parts, and expose herself to the humiliation of a public trial unless motivated solely by a desire to vindicate her honor. Absent evidence of improper motive, the presumption is that the witness was not so actuated, and her testimony is entitled to full faith and credit. The Court also deferred to the trial court's assessment of credibility, having observed the witness's demeanor.

On the third issue, the Court held that alibi cannot prevail over positive identification. To succeed, alibi requires proof that it was physically impossible for the accused to be present at the time and place of the crime. Here the distance between the house and the barber shop was less than a kilometer, so no such impossibility existed.

On the fourth issue, the Court noted the abolition of the death penalty by Republic Act Number 9346 and reduced the penalty to reclusion perpetua.

Doctrine

Qualified rape under Article 266-B requires the concurrence of the victim's minority, that she be under eighteen years of age, and the offender's relationship to her as a parent, ascendant, step-parent, guardian, relative by consanguinity or affinity within the third civil degree, or common-law spouse of the parent. When a father rapes his own daughter, his parental authority and moral ascendancy substitute for force and intimidation. Carnal knowledge is complete upon the slightest contact of the male organ with the labia. A child's credible testimony, standing alone, can sustain a conviction, and it is entitled to greater weight when directed against her own father. Alibi fails against positive identification unless physical impossibility is shown. Finally, following the abolition of the death penalty, the penalty for qualified rape is reduced to reclusion perpetua without possibility of parole.

Disposition

The appeal was dismissed for lack of merit, and the judgment of conviction was affirmed with modification, imposing reclusion perpetua upon the accused without possibility of parole.

Remember This

The one line to memorize: a father's moral ascendancy substitutes for force and intimidation in incestuous rape, and alibi is worthless against positive identification. Examiners use this case for the elements of qualified rape, the credibility of a child complainant, and the effect of the abolition of the death penalty on penalties already imposed.