Father faces reclusion perpetua for raping 16-year-old daughter

CEBU, Philippines – A resident of Naga City, Cebu who allegedly raped his 16-year-old daughter is facing a sentence of reclusion perpetua after the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction.

The SC, in a decision penned by Associate Justice Jose Portugal Perez, found no ground to disturb the ruling of the lower courts convicting the father for rape and acts of lasciviousness.

“After a perusal of the records and evidence, this Court finds the testimonies of the prosecution’s witnesses credible and plausible. We uphold the findings of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) and the appellate court as to the credibility of the prosecution witnesses. We find no compelling reason to discredit the integrity of the testimonies of the witnesses,” read the decision.

The FREEMAN withheld the names of the parties involved due to the nature of the case.

The suspect appealed his conviction before the SC claiming the Court of Appeals erred in affirming the decision of the trial court finding him guilty of both charges.

He said the complaints filed against him by his daughter were fabricated.

However, according to the SC, evidence shows that the victim was not ill-motivated in pressing charges against her father, adding that the victim’s act of crying while in the witness stand supports her credibility.

“Such reaction is born out of the verity of human nature due to an appalling incident. It has become fundamental in rape cases that no woman of sound mind would be willing to publicize her grueling experience and risk the ordeal of interrogation, were it not for the purpose of vindicating her honor,” the decision read.

According to the victim, she was sexually abused by her father sometime in March 2004 and on December 29, 2004 while the suspect was drunk. The victim, who was still 16 years old then, resisted from her father but he allegedly threatened to kill her with the weapon he was bringing.

It was on the following day, December 30 that her mother learned about the incident from her uncle and cousins who saw what her father did to her under the mango tree.

The suspect denied the allegations, saying that he always brought with him a bolo or a knife because of the issues of ghost appearances in their place.

The RTC, however, sentenced the suspect to suffer the penalty of 20 to 40 years imprisonment and meted him P125,000 in damages.

The suspect appealed his conviction before the appellate court, but the latter upheld the RTC’s decision.

In an 18-page decision, the SC affirmed the CA’s ruling with modification as to the penalties.

It ruled that the alleged inconsistencies of the victim as to the weapon used by her father during the incident do not necessarily downgrade the victim’s credibility as a witness.

From P125,000, the SC ordered the suspect to pay his daughter P365,000 for damages for both the crime of rape and acts of lasciviousness.

Since the victim was a minor and the suspect was her parent, the penalty shall be in its maximum period, the SC said, thus, sentenced the suspect to reclusion perpetua or 20 to 40 years of imprisonment.

The suspect is not eligible for parole, the highest court in the country added.  (FREEMAN)