PEOPLE v. CLARO

People of the Philippines Vs. Carlito Claro y Mahinay

G.R. No. 199894

April 5, 2017

FACTS

At around 9:00 o'clock in the morning of March 14, 2006, AAA, a housemaid, received a text message from the accused asking if they could meet. He was then working as a security guard near AAA's place of work. AAA accepted his invitation and met with him on Augusto San Francisco Street, Sta. Ana, Manila, where they boarded a passenger jeepney bound for Rizal Avenue in Sta. Cruz, Manila. Arriving in Sta. Cruz, they entered a Jollibee restaurant on Rizal Avenue and ordered food. They later on went to a nearby house, later identified as the Aroma Motel. She refused to go up the stairs of the motel, which impelled him to hold her by the hand and pull her upstairs, insisting that they would only talk and eat. He then talked to a male attendant who ushered them into a room.

Upon entering the room, AAA tried to leave, but the accused closed the door and pushed her towards the bed. She still attempted to leave but the door was locked.. He pulled her back to the bed, telling her that he loved her. Instead of responding to him, she said that she needed to go to the toilet. Once inside the toilet, she called her cousin, Alberto German (German), a police officer, but she was unable to give him her exact location after her phone ran out of charge. It was then when the accused barged inside the toilet and again pulled her back to the bed. He forcefully undressed her completely, went on top of her, and forcibly inserted his penis inside her vagina. She kept on punching to try to stop him, but to no avail. After he was done, she immediately put on her clothes and left the room. But she was compelled to ride with him in the same passenger jeepney because she did not know her way back.

ISSUE

Did the RTC and the CA correctly find and pronounce the accused guilty of rape beyond reasonable doubt?

HELD

The Court acquits the accused on the ground of reasonable doubt.

It is noticeable that the versions of AAA and the accused ultimately contradicted each other on whether rape or consensual sex had transpired between them. Their contradictions notwithstanding, the circumstances - whether based on her recollection or on his — indicated that she had willingly met with him on March 14, 2006 in order to go on a lovers' date. Their meeting on Augusto San Francisco Street in Sta. Ana, Manila, and their going together by jeepney to Rizal Avenue, where they entered the Jollibee restaurant to share the meal were undoubtedly by their prior agreement. It was while they were in the restaurant when they discussed checking in at the Aroma Motel, but once she assented to their checking in the Aroma motel, they walked together towards the motel, and entered together.

That the medico-legal examination of March 14, 2006 turned up with the findings of abrasions on AAA's left breast and contusions on her right hand did not necessarily mean that the accused had applied force in the context of forcing her to have sex with him. The conclusion of the CA was, therefore, too sweeping, for it inexplicably ignored the probability of consensuality between the parties. Such findings did not justify the full rejection of the demonstrable consensuality of their sexual intercourse. Moreover, the mere presence of abrasions and contusions on her did not preclude the giving of her consent to the sexual intercourse, for abrasions and contusions could also be suffered during voluntary submission of the partners to each other's lust. Such possibility calls for us to open our minds to the conclusion that the sexual intercourse resulted from consensuality between them.