THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. CATALINO OSCAR, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT.

The defendant was charged in the Court of First Instance of Abra of the crime of rape under the following information:

“That
on or about the 28th day of October, 1923, in the municipality of
Lagangilang, Province of Abra, Philippine Islands, the said accused by
means of force did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously
lie and had carnal knowledge with Marta Trondillo, a girl eight years
of age, against her will and in spite of her resistance, while she was
asleep in the house of her uncle Tomas Cada.”

The trial court found the defendant guilty of the crime of frustrated rape without any qualifying circumstance and sentenced him to eight years and one day of presidio mayor with the accessory penalties and to pay the costs. From this sentence the defendant appeals.

The evidence leaves no doubt whatever as to the defendant’s guilt. His
testimony that he merely introduced his finger into the vagina of the
offended party, in a fit of anger, because her uncle, Tomas Cada,
failed to furnish him a girl with whom he could have sexual
intercourse, is under the circumstances absurd and deserves no credence.

The court below found that the crime was frustrated, and not
consummated, on the ground that the evidence did not clearly show that
the defendant’s genital organ was introduced to its full length into
that of the offended party, and that there were no signs of emission of
semen. This conclusion is erroneous.

“Perfect penetration is not essential. Any penetration of the female body by the male organ is sufficient.” (People vs. Rivers, 147 Mich., 643.)

“Entry
of the labia or lips of the female organ, merely, without rupture of
the hymen or laceration of the vagina, is sufficient to warrant
conviction.” (Kenney vs. State, 65 L. R. A., 316; Rodgers vs. State, 30 Tex. App., 510; Brauer vs. State, 25 Wis., 413.)

Stewart, in his work on Legal Medicine, citing Taylor vs. State (111 Ind., 279), and People vs.
Crowley (102 N. Y., 234), says at page 137: “And it is undoubtedly the
law that penetration even to the least extent will be sufficient to
establish the crime, and this may even be inferred from the
circumstances of the case.”

In the present case, the
physician, who examined the offended party shortly after the commission
of the crime, testifies that the hymen was lacerated and that there was
coagulated blood, though he found no semen. This shows sufficiently
that the crime was consummated, and the sentence of the court below
must be modified accordingly.

We therefore find the
defendant-appellant guilty of the consummated crime of rape and
sentence him to suffer fourteen years, eight months and one day of reclusion temporal,
with the accessory penalties prescribed by law, to endow the offended
party in the sum of P500, and to pay the costs. So ordered.

Avanceña, C. J., Street, Malcolm, Johns, Romualdez, and Villa-Real, JJ., concur.