PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE, VS. APOLONIO CULTURA, ACCUSED-APPELLANT.

People versus Cultura

The Case

This is the People of the Philippines against Apolonio Cultura, known in his barangay as Onyot, an appeal from a conviction for rape. The accused was charged with having carnal knowledge of an eleven year old girl by means of force and intimidation with the use of a knife. The case matters for two reasons. First, it is a clean teaching case on conviction by circumstantial evidence, where no one witnessed the act itself and the Court had to build an unbroken chain of proven circumstances. Second, it shows how the Court treats the qualifying circumstance of age when the prosecution fails to prove it, and how moral damages are awarded in rape as a matter of course.

Procedural History

An Information was filed with the Regional Trial Court, Branch 43, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, charging the accused with rape under Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code. Upon arraignment he pleaded not guilty, and trial followed. The trial court rendered its Decision on March 16, 1998, finding him guilty beyond reasonable doubt of rape under the circumstance provided in number 3 of Article 335, imposing reclusion perpetua, and ordering him to indemnify the victim in the amount of 50,000 pesos. He was granted full time credit for the duration of his preventive custody. The accused appealed directly to the Supreme Court, contending that his guilt was not proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Facts

At about eleven o'clock in the morning of April 9, 1996, the eleven year old complainant, referred to as AAA, was catching shrimps in the Siaton River just below her house. The water was waist deep, so she had taken off her clothes. Her brother, who had been with her, went home ahead of her. While she was alone in the river, her neighbor Apolonio Cultura, alias Onyot, approached her from a bamboo grove. He boxed her twice, and she fell and lost consciousness.

When she recovered her senses she found herself in the bamboo grove, naked and alone. She stood up, felt pain in her vagina, and saw much blood coming from it. She ran toward the road, where she saw Onyot, who warned her that if she told her father he would kill all of them. She ran home and told her father she had been sexually abused by Onyot, and she showed him her bleeding vagina. Her father immediately brought her to the barangay captain, who noticed that her shorts were drenched with blood and advised them to go to the police station. After the incident was blottered, she was brought to the Bayawan District Hospital, where her bleeding sexual organ was cleaned and sutured.

Dr. Mitylene Besario Tan, her attending physician, found a lacerated wound at the mid-lower aspect of the vaginal mucosa extending to the perineum. The wound was very serious because it extended from the inside to the outside of the vagina, and without medical attendance it would cause profuse bleeding leading to anemia and possibly to hypovolemic shock and death. Dr. Tan opined that a male organ could have caused the laceration and the bleeding. For the defense, the accused denied the charge and raised alibi, claiming that at noon of that day he was driving a trysicad in the poblacion of Siaton. His witness, the trysicad owner Roger Sumili, testified that the distance between the poblacion and the barangay where the crime took place may be negotiated by trysicad.

Issues

• Whether or not the guilt of the accused-appellant was proved beyond reasonable doubt, principally on the credibility of the complainant and on circumstantial evidence.
• Whether or not the defense of denial and alibi can prevail over the positive identification of the accused.
• Whether or not the accused may be convicted of rape under the circumstance that the woman was unconscious.
• Whether or not the victim is entitled to moral damages in addition to civil indemnity.

Applicable Provisions

Section 4 of Rule 133 of the Revised Rules of Court, as amended, provides:

Section 4. Circumstantial Evidence, when sufficient. Circumstantial evidence is sufficient for conviction if: (a) There is more than one circumstance; (b) The facts from which the inferences are derived are proven; and (c) The combination of all circumstances is such as to produce conviction beyond reasonable doubt.

This is the provision under which the Court sustained the conviction, since no witness saw the act of intercourse itself.

Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended by Republic Act Number 7659, provides:

Article 335. 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 shall be punished by reclusion perpetua.

The Court used this provision to identify which circumstance was proved, and to explain why the age alleged in the Information could not be relied upon.

Ruling

On the first issue, the Court held that the complainant told the truth and positively identified the accused, and that the trial court's assessment of credibility is entitled to great weight on appeal because of its unique position to observe the sincerity, spontaneity, demeanor, and behavior of witnesses in court. The Court then applied Section 4 of Rule 133 and listed nine circumstances forming an unbroken chain: she was bathing in the river alone; the accused approached her and boxed her twice; she lost consciousness; she woke up in a bamboo grove, naked and alone; she felt pain in her vagina and found it bleeding; she met the accused near the road; he threatened her not to tell her father; the medical findings showed the lacerated wound extending to the perineum, severe enough to require suturing; and the barangay captain and the police investigator both saw blood on her shorts and on the lower portion of her body. The Court added that no woman would contrive a rape story, allow an examination of her private parts, and submit to scrutiny at a public trial unless moved solely by a desire to have the culprit punished, and that her prompt report to her father and to the authorities strengthened her credibility.

On the second issue, the Court held that denial and alibi must fail. Alibi is the weakest of all defenses because it is easy to fabricate, and it cannot prevail over positive identification by credible witnesses. For alibi to prosper, the accused must prove his presence at another place at the time of the offense and demonstrate that it was physically impossible for him to be at the scene. Here, the defense witness himself testified that the distance between the poblacion and the barangay could be negotiated by trysicad, so it was possible for the accused to be at the scene at the time of the crime.

On the third issue, the Court noted that although the Information alleged that the complainant was eleven years old, the prosecution failed to prove her age during trial. The trial court therefore correctly convicted under the second circumstance of Article 335, that the rape was committed when the woman was unconscious. The Court explained that carnal knowledge of an unconscious woman constitutes rape, opposition or resistance not being required, for the state of the woman at that time signifies that she has no will.

On the fourth issue, the Court held that the trial court erred in awarding civil indemnity of 50,000 pesos without granting moral damages. In rape cases, the victim's injury is inherently concomitant with the odious crime, so moral damages are awarded per se without need of proof of mental and physical suffering. Following current jurisprudence, the Court fixed moral damages at 50,000 pesos.

Doctrine

Circumstantial evidence suffices for conviction when there is more than one circumstance, the facts from which the inferences are drawn are proven, and the combination of all the circumstances produces conviction beyond reasonable doubt. The circumstances must form an unbroken chain leading to one fair and reasonable conclusion pointing to the accused as the guilty person, consistent with each other and with guilt, and inconsistent with any other hypothesis except guilt. Alibi, the weakest of defenses, cannot prevail over positive identification, and it prospers only if the accused proves presence elsewhere and that it was physically impossible for him to be at the scene. Carnal knowledge of a woman deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious is rape under Article 335, resistance not being required because the woman has no will. When the age of the victim is alleged but not proved, the conviction must rest on the circumstance actually established. Moral damages of 50,000 pesos are awarded in rape per se, without proof of mental and physical suffering, in addition to civil indemnity.

Disposition

The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction of Apolonio Cultura for rape under Article 335, second circumstance, and the penalty of reclusion perpetua, with modification ordering him to pay the victim an additional 50,000 pesos as moral damages.

Remember This

Memorize the rule that an unbroken chain of proven circumstances producing moral certainty is enough for conviction, and that moral damages in rape are awarded per se. Examiners use this case to test circumstantial evidence under Section 4 of Rule 133, the failure to prove the age alleged in the Information, and the automatic award of moral damages.