PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE, VS. CARMELITO LINTAG, DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.

There is no dispute that at around six o’clock in the evening of April 17, 1978 Carmelito Lintag, 19, a jeepney driver,
residing at Bago Bantay, Quezon City (he finished first year high school), had
sexual congress with Estella Redoble, 15 (born on
January 30, 1963), a resident of 19 Maryland Street, Cubao,
on a bamboo bed (papag)
in a shack in the squatter’s area near Kamias
Street and the Nepa-Q-Mart, Quezon
City (Exh. C and D).

Before the carnal intercourse,
Estella took ten Ornacol capsules.  Judicial notice may be taken of the fact that
Ornacol is a medical preparation against cough and
colds with its antitussive and decongestant
components:  dextromethorphan
hydrobromide and phenylpropanolamine
HCI.  Taken in the prescribed dose of one to two capsules every twelve hours, it is
not dangerous.

But, as observed by Doctor Carmen Concepcion-Valero,
the Chief of the medical clinic of this Court, an overdose is dangerous because
of its sedative action:  it causes
drowsiness.  (See Pims 1983 Edition, page 81).  Lintag admits that
about half an hour after taking the ten tablets Estella was feeling dizzy and
she wanted to sleep (4 tsn May 20, 1981).

His story is that he met Estella on March 17, 1978.  She
became his sweetheart.  On April 17, 1978, he happened to meet her in the Bernardo
Park near the Nepa-Q-Mart.  He
invited her to take a stroll inside the market.  Then, they went to the Mercury Drugstore
nearby and she asked him to buy ten Ornacol capsules
with her money.  She used the ten
capsules.

They went to a restaurant
but as she felt dizzy he took her to the house of a friend in the squatter’s area.  His friend left them alone in the house.  They had sexual intercourse there with her
consent.  (In his
statement, Exhibit D, dated April 21, 1978, he said that he met Estella for the
first time on April 17, 1978, not a month earlier).

On the other hand,
Estella (who finished first year high school) testified that at about two
o’clock in the afternoon of April 17, 1978, while she was at the
Bernardo Park near Quezon City Hall, she was
approached by Lintag who informed her that her friend
and former classmate in Grade six nicknamed Baby was looking for her near the
jukebox at K-10 Street.

Estella went with Lintag, whom she had
seen before at the Nepa-Q-Mart, although she did not
know his name, to look for Baby.  They
did not find Baby.  Lintag
suggested that they take a walk.  They went to the vicinity of Mercury
Drugstore near the Nepa-Q-Mart at Epifanio
de los Santos Avenue. 
Later, they returned to K-10 Street but as Baby was not yet there, they played
the jukebox until six o’clock in the afternoon.  They talked about drugs and the
“trips” caused by taking the same.

Lintag bought Ornacol
capsules at the Mercury Drugstore.  He
asked Estella to take them but she refused. 
Lintag assured her that nothing would happen
to her by taking the tablets and that she could make her “trip” while
listening to the music from the jukebox. 
She relented and Lintag forced her to open her
mouth and placed ten Ornacol capsules therein, five
at a time.

Sometime later, Estella
became dizzy and weak (4 tsn April
25, 1979).  Lintag placed her
in a jeep and took her to a shack in the squatter’s area near the Nepa-Q–Mart. 
The persons in that house left when they arrived.  Lintag undressed
her and placed her on a bamboo bed (papag).

As she was feeling weak,
she was not able to offer any resistance. 
In that condition, Lintag had sexual congress
with her.  The carnal intercourse caused
her much pain.  (“Naramdaman ko
ang sakit at ang hapdi ng ipasok ni Lito ang kanyang ari
sa akin”).

She dressed up and
returned to the parked jeep.  At this
juncture, her parents arrived in a taxi. 
Lintag fled from the scene.  That same evening, she and her mother
reported the outrage to Detective Vicente Madero of
the Quezon City Police.  Her statement was not taken then because she
was in a state of shock.  It was
taken three days later (Exh. B).

The medical examination
showed her “hymen with old lacerations at 5, 6, 9 and 11 o’clock positions”.  Her vagina admits two fingers with ease.  Her mons veneris had scanty pubic hair (Exh.
A).

Estella filed a complaint
for rape against Lintag a week after the incident (Exh. F).  After
trial, the Court of First Instance of Rizal, Quezon City Branch V, convicted him of rape, sentenced
him to reclusion perpetua and ordered him to
indemnify the offended party and her parents in the sum of P31,000 as damages
(Criminal Case No. Q-9435).  He appealed to this Court.

He contends that the
trial court erred in not finding that the case for the prosecution is utterly
unfounded and in finding that he made Estella take ten Ornacol
capsules which caused her to lose all power to resist his advances.  He calls attention to Estella’s admission in
her statement to the police that she became interested in Ornacol
and she gave Lintag the money to purchase it (Exh. B).

We hold that his guilt
was proven beyond reasonable doubt.  The
fact is that Estella knew nothing about Ornacol.  It was Lintag’s
sales talk about “trips” which inveigled her into asking him to buy Ornacol.  His
culpability is sanctioned by the doctrine that “el que es causa
de la causa es causa del mal causado” (he who is the cause of
the cause is the cause of the evil caused) (1 Cuello Calon, Derecho Penal, 15th Ed.,
1975, p. 343; People vs. Ural, L-30801, March 27, 1974, 56 SCRA 138).

Appellant testified that
Estella allegedly visited him in jail three or four times and they also had
sexual intercourse in that public place. 
No credence was given by the trial court to that claim.

He also anchors his
defense on certain handwritten documents. 
One is an unsworn certification dated April
26, 1978 (two days after she filed the complaint) wherein she states that she
left her residence and was residing with her friend, Remedios
Ocido (who also signed the
certification), at Project 2 (Exh. J).  Remedios
is  the common-law wife of Boy Lintag, the accused’s brother.

Another letter, dated May 13,
1978, addressed to
“Mahal Kong Lito”
in jail was about their aborted marriage (Exh. G).  Another very long
letter dated “Friday 30, 1978”, is addressed to “Nanay Lina at Tatay
Gani” (Exh. H).  Another three-page letter dated June 4, 1978
recounts the circumstances surrounding her sexual intercourse with Lintag on April 17, 1978 (Exh.
I to I-2).

Estella testified that
she was forced to write those
letters after she was
kidnapped by Boy Lintag, the brother of the
accused.  She was brought to Lintag’s house in Bago Bantay, then to the house of a certain Colonel Lintag in Scout Magbanua Street,
and then to the house of Boy Lintag and his
common-law wife in Pasig, Rizal
from which she later escaped.  She was
kidnapped in the afternoon of April
24 and was able to escape on June 15,
1978 (7-8 tsn April 25, 1979).

She declared that she wrote
Exhibit G by copying the original
prepared by Colonel Lintag.  Exhibit H, addressed to the parents of the
accused, was copied from the letter prepared by the accused’s
father, Tatay Gani, in the
house of Colonel Lintag.  She did not write the name “Stella”
at the end of the said letter.

In his house, Colonel Lintag also told Estella to copy the letter, Exhibit I, so that she could be set free (11 tsn
April 25, 1979).  No probative value can be assigned to the
said letters.  They only strengthen the
evidence proving the guilt of the accused.

Lintag was charged with having caused Estella to take ten capsules of Ornacol, thus making her
dizzy and dazed, and thereafter he had sexual intercourse with her against her
will.

The rule is that “if
the ability to resist is taken away by administering drugs, even
though the woman may be conscious, sexual
intercourse with her is rape” (33 Cyc. 1426-1427
cited in Hirdes vs. Ottawa Circuit Judge, 146 N. W.
646).

“If the woman’s will is affected by the anesthetic so that the
connection is had without her consent, though she may be more or less
conscious, the act will be rape” (3 Wharton and Steele on Medical
Jurisprudence, 4th Ed., sec. 597, cited in State vs. Still, 202 N. W. 479,
480).

In the Still case, the defendant, a physician, administered
an injection containing 1-50 grain strychnine, 1-30 grain digitalin
and 1-8 grain morphine to the victim to put her to sleep.  When she awoke and was drowsy, dizzy and
physically weak, the defendant had sexual intercourse with her although she
resisted by the use of the muscles of her abdomen and legs and by pulling his
hair and crying out.  He was held guilty
of rape.

In People vs. Ing, 422 Pac.
2nd 590, defendant doctor gave a seventeen-year-old girl, who wanted an
abortion, a shot that caused her to pass out. 
Upon awakening, and as she was feeling dizzy,
light-headed and “high”, the doctor had sexual intercourse with her.  He did this three times.  It was held that the defendant was guilty of
rape because the intoxicating narcotic or anesthetic substance administered to
the victim prevented her from resisting his sexual advances.

In Rhine vs. State, 337 Pac.
2d 913, the defendant, a licensed physician, administered intravenous
injections of nembutal
or sodium pentobarbital to a married woman who became momentarily
unconscious.  When she woke up, the physician got in bed with her and they had
sexual intercourse.  The woman was
conscious of all that went on but she had no power of resistance as she was
both scared and paralyzed.  The court
upheld the jury’s verdict of guilty because the injection of narcotic and
anesthetic agent left the woman dazed and
without power of resistance.

What the accused did in this case was to employ a subtle or
sophisticated form of overcoming the resistance of the victim by the use of Ornacol capsules.  He
was able to consummate his felonious objective, considering that the victim was
a mere teenager and considering the propensity of the present youth to succumb
to drug addiction and to indulge in practices which their parents consider
immoral or unconventional.

WHEREFORE, the lower court’s judgment is affirmed. Costs de oficio.

SO ORDERED.

Concepcion, Jr., Guerrero, Abad Santos, De Castro, and
Escolin, JJ., concur.

Makasiar (Chairman), J., no part.