This case has been cited 3 times or more.
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2007-06-07 |
GARCIA, J. |
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| Under consideration is this appeal by EDWARD (aka Eduardo) CORNELIO y LUCENA from the October 6, 2005 decision[1] of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. CR-HC No. 00720, affirming with modification an earlier decision[2] of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Iriga City, Branch 35, which found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of Rape as defined in Article 266-A of the Revised Penal Code, in relation to Republic Act No. 7610. | |||||
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2007-06-07 |
GARCIA, J. |
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| Conformably with this Court's decision in People v. Mateo,[11] modifying the pertinent provisions of the Rules of Court insofar as they provide for direct appeals from the RTC to this Court in cases where the penalty imposed by the trial court is death, reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment, the case was referred to the CA for appropriate action and disposition, whereat it was docketed as CA-G.R. CR-HC No. 00720. | |||||
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2001-10-23 |
QUISUMBING, J. |
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| We agree with the trial court that no evidentiary weight could be given to the self-serving declarations of appellant. His ratiocination that the rapes could not have been committed in a small house where many people were living deserves scant consideration. We have held time and again that rape does not occur only in seclusion[23] and can be committed in the unlikeliest of places.[24] Situs of rape has been inside a house where there were other occupants;[25] in a room adjacent to where the victim's family was sleeping;[26] or even in a room which the victim shared with the sisters of the accused.[27] Among couples with big families who live in cramped quarters, the presence of other members of the family is not necessarily a deterrent to the commission of rape.[28] It is not impossible for the rape to take place inside a small house with no partition and with five occupants therein, including the accused and the victim.[29] Lust is no respecter of time and place.[30] The scenario illustrated by private complainants wherein they were raped inside their room by their own father is therefore not impossible nor incredible. It may seem improbable but as we held in one case: x x x | |||||