G.R. Nos. 135557-58 - PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, VS. EMMANUEL QUEZADA.DECISION - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, finding accused Emmanuel Quezada y Gadugdug GUILTY beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of RAPE in both Criminal Case Nos. 3575 and 3576, committed with the attendant circumstance that the victim is under eighteen (18) years of age and the offender is a relative by affinity within the third civil degree, and pursuant to Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended by Section 11 of Republic Act No. 7659, the Court hereby sentences him to suffer the supreme penalty of DEATH in each case. Accused is further ordered to pay complainant Emily D. Orillaneda the amount of fifty thousand pesos (P50,000.00) as civil indemnity in each case or a total of one hundred thousand pesos (P100,000.00), in addition to moral damages of fifty thousand (P50,000.00) pesos in each case or a total of one hundred thousand (P100,000.00) pesos; and to pay the costs. Accused being detained, he is credited in the service of his sentence with the full term of his preventive imprisonment, if he agree[s] in writing to abide by the same disciplinary rules imposed on convicted prisoners, otherwise four-fifths (4/5) thereof. Let the entire records of these cases, together with all the exhibits and transcripts of stenographic notes of the proceedings, be elevated to the Honorable Supreme Court for automatic review. [2] Provincial Prosecutor Pretextato A. Montenegro filed on July 29, 1996 two Informations [3] against appellant docketed as Criminal Case Nos. 3575 and 3576. Except for the dates of the commission of the offenses, both Informations were similarly worded as follows: That sometime in the month of December 1995, at about 8:30 oclock in the evening, more or less, at Poblacion Cagwait, Province of Surigao del Sur, Philippines and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the above-named accused, with lewd design and by means of force and intimidation, did, then and there, willfully, unlawfully and feloniously have sexual intercourse with his sister-in-law, Emily Orillaneda, a 13 year-old girl, against the will of the latter, to the damage and prejudice of said Emily Orillaneda in the amount of P50,000.00. CONTRARY TO LAW. (In violation of Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code) [4] Almost identically worded as the first, the second Information [5] indicted appellant for rape albeit on a different date, sometime in the month of February 1996. On two separate dates -- February 11, 1997 [6] and March 20, 1997 [7] -- he was arraigned for each charge. With the assistance of counsel, [8] he pleaded not guilty to both of these charges. After trial in due course, the RTC -- as earlier stated -- convicted him. The Facts Version of the Prosecution In its Brief, [9] the Office of the Solicitor General presents the prosecutions version of the facts in this wise: Complainant Emily Orillaneda had lived with appellant Emmanuel Quezada and his wife Eloida Orillaneda Quezada, complainants elder sister at the couples residence in Cagwait, Surigao del Sur since