SC Uses Clear, Straightforward Language in Discussion of Rape to Ensure Accuracy in Court Judgments
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SC Uses Clear, Straightforward Language in Discussion of Rape to Ensure Accuracy in Court Judgments |
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SC Uses Clear, Straightforward Language in Discussion of Rape to Ensure Accuracy in Court Judgments | March 31, 2023
“The safety and dignity of all persons are worth the disconcerting conversation that must be had, if [the Court] is to dispense with honest justice.”
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Thus, held the Supreme Court En Banc in a landmark ruling where, using straightforward language, it clarified when the crime of rape through penile penetration is considered consummated.
In a 40-page Decision penned by Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa, the Court affirmed the Valenzuela Regional Trial Court’s (RTC) conviction of Efren Agao of two counts of Statutory Rape, as also upheld by the Court of Appeals (CA). The Supreme Court, however, modified the lower courts’ rulings, and found Agao guilty of one count of Statutory Rape and one count of Simple Rape.
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SHOP HERE VOL. I VOL. II In 2014, Agao was charged with two counts of Statutory Rape of minor AAA, the daughter of Agao’s live-in partner, BBB. Agao was convicted by Branch 172, Valenzuela City RTC, which ruled that while Agao’s penis only merely touched the labia of AAA, the crime of rape was nevertheless consummated following the 2014 case of People v. Besmonte, which held that carnal knowledge, as an element of rape, does not require full penetration of the female organ. |
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On appeal to the CA, Agao’s conviction was affirmed, prompting him to bring his case to the Supreme Court.
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The Court then concluded that “mere introduction, however slight, into the cleft of the labia majora by a penis that is capable of penetration, regardless of whether such penile penetration is thereafter fully achieved, consummates the crime of rape.
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Reconciling the diverging rulings in existing jurisprudence, the Court clarified that “mere touch” of the penis on the labia majora legally contemplates not mere surface touch or skin contact, but the slightest penetration of the vulval or pudendal cleft, however minimum in degree.”
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The Court stressed that such clarification is necessary, as otherwise any nature and degree of touch of a penis of the female genitalia can be considered consummated rape, effectively resulting in all sexual assaults involving a penis and the vulva to only either be acts of lasciviousness or consummated rape, with no gradation of the attempted stage in between.
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The Court also took the opportunity to further clarify the stages of commission of rape for pre-puberty victims.
The Court held that “for child victims in the pre-puberty age, the genital contact threshold for a finding of consummated rape through penile penetration is deemed already met once the entirety of the prosecution evidence establishes a clear physical indication of the inevitability of the minimum genital contact threshold as clarified here, if it were not for the physical immaturity and underdevelopment of the minor victim’s vagina, which may include repeated touching of the accused’s erect penis on the minor victim’s vagina and other indicative acts of penetration.”
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Finally, the Court held that set threshold of genital contact may also be applied by analogy to acts of rape by sexual assault under Article 266-A paragraph 2, of the Revised Penal Code, such that “a finding that the accused has penetrated the vulval cleft of the victim through the use of any instrument or object warrants a factual finding of consummated rape by sexual assault.”
The Court concluded, “At the risk of testing its strength under the weight of its decisions, the Court must remain honest, clear-sighted and unflinching, for to look away is violence.”
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Watch HERE FULL TEXT OF G.R. No. 248049 dated October 4, 2022 at: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/248049-people-of-the-philippines-vs-efren-agao-y-anonuevo/ |
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FULL TEXT OF the Separate Concurring Opinion of Justice Maria Filomena D. Singh at: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/248049-separate-concurring-opinion-justice-filomena-d-singh/
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(Courtesy of the Supreme Court Public Information Office)
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What are your thoughts about this landmark ruling by the Supreme Court? Feel free to comment in the comment section below. Thank you for your continued support and feedback.
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