Myline Cordial

People of the Philippines vs. Edgardo Dimaano
G.R. No. 168168, September 14, 2005

FACTS:
On January 26, 1996, Maricar Dimaano charged her father, Edgardo Dimaano with two (2) counts of rape and one (1) count of attempted rape in the following complaints:
1) Criminal Case No. 96-125 – The accused had carnal knowledge of his daughter who was a minor of 10 years of age
2) Criminal Case No. 96-150 – The accused had carnal knowledge of his daughter who was a minor of 12 years of age
3) Criminal Case No. 96-151 – The accused attempted to rape his daughter but he was not able to complete the act due to the timely arrival of the complainant’s mother.

ISSUE:
1. on Sufficiency of Complaint – WON complaint for attempted rape in Criminal Case No. 96-151 (quoted below) is sufficient.

“That on or about the 1st day of January 1996, in the Municipality of Paraaque, Metro Manila, Philippines and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the above-named accused, try and attempt to rape one Maricar Dimaano y Victoria, thus commencing the commission of the crime of Rape, directly by overt acts, but nevertheless did not perform all the acts of execution which would produce it, as a consequence by reason of cause other than his spontaneous desistance that is due to the timely arrival of the complainant’s mother”.

RULING:
1. The complaint failed to allege the elements of the crime charged. Section 6, Rule 110 of the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure provides that, for complaint or information to be sufficient, it must state the name of the accused; the designation of the offense given by the statute; the acts or omissions complained of as constituting the offense; the name of the offended party; the approximate time of the commission of the offense, and the place wherein the offense was committed. What is controlling is not the title of the complaint, nor the designation of the offense charged or the particular law or part thereof allegedly violated, these being mere conclusions of law made by the prosecutor, but the description of the crime charged and the particular facts therein recited. Every element of the offense must be stated in the information or complaint. The above-cited complaint does not allege specific acts or omission constituting the elements of the crime of rape.
NOTES:

• Rape, elements and penalty
  ART. 335. When and how rape is committed. – Rape is committed by having carnal knowledge of a woman under any of the following circumstances:
  1. By using force or intimidation;
  2. When the woman is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious; and
  3. When the woman is under twelve years of age or is demented.
  The crime of rape shall be punished by reclusion perpetua. The death penalty shall also be imposed if the crime of rape is committed with any of the following attendant circumstances:
  1. When the victim is under eighteen (18) years of age and the offender is a parent, ascendant, step-parent, guardian, relative by consanguinity or affinity within the third civil degree, or the common-law spouse of the parent of the victim.
• The gravamen of the offense of rape is sexual congress with a woman by force and without consent. If the woman is under 12 years of age, proof of force and consent becomes immaterial not only because force is not an element of statutory rape, but the absence of a free consent is presumed. Conviction will therefore lie, provided sexual intercourse is proven. But if the woman is 12 years of age or over at the time she was violated, sexual intercourse must be proven and also that it was done through force, violence, intimidation or threat.
• In incestuous rape of a minor, actual force or intimidation need not even be employed where the overpowering moral influence of appellant, who is private complainant’s father, would suffice. The moral and physical dominion of the father is sufficient to cow the victim into submission to his beastly desires.
• A criminal offense is an outrage to the sovereign State and to the State belongs the power to prosecute and punish crimes.
• An affidavit of desistance is not a ground for the dismissal of an action, once it has been instituted in court. A private complainant loses the right or absolute privilege to decide whether the rape charge should proceed, because the case was already filed and must therefore continue to be heard by the trial court.