THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. RUPERTO ASI, ET AL., DEFENDANTS. FORTUNATO ARO, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT.

Ruperto Asi and Fortunato Aro were charged with robbery in band,
with rape, in the Court of First Instance of Oriental Mindoro. At first
Asi pleaded not guilty, but later, with leave of court, he withdrew
such plea and substituted it with one of guilty, and he was
correspondingly sentenced.

After trial upon a plea of not guilty, Aro was convicted of the
crime charged, with the aggravating circumstances of night time and in
band, without any mitigating circumstance to offset them, and he was
sentenced to reclusion perpetua, to indemnify Esmenia
Querubin, mother of the rape victim, in the sum of P1,000.00, and to
pay the costs. From this decision he appealed to Us.

Counsel de oficio, after discussing the prosecution
evidence and the merits of the defense of alibi interposed by
appellant, recommends confirmation of the decision appealed from. This
notwithstanding, in view of the gravity of the offense, we have made a
careful review of the record, and have found the following facts to
have been established beyond reasonable doubt:

At about midnight on December 19, 1955, Ruperto Asi, armed with a
bolo, appellant, armed with a .45 pistol, Crescienciano Duenas, with a
shotgun, and Mariano Bacay with a Garand rifle, entered the house of
Santos Claveria, in sitio San Juan, Bongabpn, Oriental Mindorp. Upon
noticing their presence, Esmenia Querubin-Claveria’s wife—woke him up,
and when the latter did, the malefactors ordered them all to lie face
down. Suddenly Claveria jumped out of the window and escaped. One of
the malefactors fired at him but missed. After trying, unsuccessfully,
to overtake him, the four malefactors returned to the house where
appellant threatened Esmenia with the gun and demanded money. Because
of fear, she gave him a sack containing around P1,000.000.

Meanwhile, Araceli, a 17-year-old daughter of the Claverias, had
been awakened by the shots fired at her father. Upon the return of the
malefactors, appellant pulled her by the hands out of the mosquito net,
and, as she struggled to free herself, appellant took her in his arms
and kissed her. He and his companions then took Araceli outside the
house and to a place covered with tall grass where she was raped, first
by Duenas, with the help of the other malefactors—appellant one of
them—and later was successively abused by appellant, Bacay and Asi, in
that order. After having committed the robbery and rape the malefactors
left.

Araceli and her parents reported the matter to the Philippine
Constabulary headquarters the following day and Araceli was submitted
to a physical examination by Dr. Rodriguez, the result of which is
stated in the medical certificate Exhibit A. After the Christmas
holidays the corresponding criminal complaint was filed against Asi and
appellant only, because the other two malefactors could not be located
and arrested.

Appellant’s only defense is an alibi. He claims that he left his
home in Bongabon, Mindoro, in December 11, 1955 to purchase a residence
certificate at Calapan; that on December 19, 1955 he was in Taysan,
Batangas, where he requested someone to, prepare a deed of sale of a
parcel of land in favor of one Florentino Gonzales, which deed was
later ratified before Atty, Onofre Quizon at Rosario, Batangas; that he
returned to Bongabon only on December 21, 1955.

Appellant’s testimony upon the facts mentioned above, besides being
by itself self-serving and biased, is not corroborated by any credible
or indubitable evidence. His inability to produce his residence
certificate allegedly purchased on December 11; his failure to present
as witness the vendee in the alleged sale and the notary before whom
the deed was supposedly acknowledged; all these facts point to the
conclusion that his testimony deserves no credit at all.

Furthermore, both Esmenia Querubin and her daughter Araceli Claveria
testified that they knew appellant well long before the commission of
the offense, because he used to buy things from their store, and both
positively and clearly identified him as one of the malefactors who
committed the acts mentioned heretofore. These parties have absolutely
no improper motive to incriminate appellant and his companions against
whom complaint was filed almost immediately (Dec. 27, 1955) after the
commission of the offense-which circumstance greatly strengthens their
respective testimony.

The offense committed being robbery with multiple rape, with at
least two aggravating circumstances attending its commission, without
any mitigating circumstance to offset them, the penalty imposed by the
lower court is correct; but, besides the indemnity of P1,000.00,
appellant should also be, as he is hereby, sentenced to pay P4,000.00
as damages to Araceli Claveria, the rape victim (People vs. Feliciano, 77 Phil., 526, Article 345 of the Revised Penal

Modified as above indicated, the decision appealed from is affirmed, with costs.

Bengzon, C. J., Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion, Barrera, Paredes, Regala, and Makalintal, JJ., concur.