G.R. No. 132047 - PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, VS. FELIPE PECAYO SR., ACCUSED-.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, the guilt of the accused having been established beyond reasonable doubt, he is sentenced in each of Criminal Cases Nos. 6595 and 6596 to the penalty of death and to indemnify the victim in the amount of P50,000.00, with costs." The Facts Version of the Prosecution The solicitor general sums up the People's version of the facts as follows: [8] "At about 3:00 a.m. of January, 1996, Cristina Pecayo, x x x was asleep in her room with her youngest sister (p. 7, supra). Suddenly, Cristina sensed that her father, Felipe Pecayo, entered the room, stripped off her clothes, her shorts and panty. Felipe then removed his shorts, went on top of Cristina and inserted his organ into hers. When Felipe saw her daughter's sex organ ble[e]d, he wiped it off and left (supra). Cristina did nothing as she was afraid of her father, Felipe, who, when drunk, always threatened to kill his family (supra). Sometime in December, 1996, at about 3:00 a.m., Felipe again entered Cristina's room. After removing his shorts, Felipe stripped off Cristina's clothing then went on top of her and inserted his sex organ into Cristina's. When Cristina's sex organ bled, Felipe wiped off the blood and left. Cristina, aware that her father always carried a knife in his pocket, could only cry (p. 9, supra). Dr. Marissa Mallari examined Cristina on June 20, 1997. The result of said examination which was reduced into writing (Exhibit A) showed a positive deep-healed hymenal laceration at 5:00 o'clock; x x x positive superficial healed hymenal lacerations at 2:00, 4:00 o'clock positions which hymenal lacerations could have been caused by penetration, masturbation, strenuous exercise [or] instrumentation (p. 3, tsn, August 26, 1997)." Version of the Defense The version of accused-appellant, the lone defense witness, is as follows: [9] "When asked what could be the reason why Kristina charged him of raping her, he said that she resent[s] him because he gets angry with her everytime she comes home late from school. There was even a time when he spanked her in the presence of several persons. During cross-examination, Felipe Pecayo, Sr., described himself as a good father and provider. According to him, however, his children do not want him to work anymore because he is already old. He affirmed that his daughter Maricris works in Mariveles starting at 5:00 a.m., prompting her to leave the house as early as 4:00 o'clock in the morning. Felipe, Jr., on the other hand, goes to sea and sometimes leaves at 4:00 o'clock in the morning and returns after two or three hours. As far as he knows, Kristina filed these cases against him because he spanked her prior to December 1996 and after January 1996. (TSN, November 11, 1997, pp. 2-10)." Ruling of the Trial Court Assessing the credibility of the private complainant as well as her testimony in open court, Judge Lorenzo R. Silva Jr. wrote as follows: [10] "It is obvious that the testimony of Cristina that she was raped by her father in January and