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PEOPLE vs. Proceso Q. Aballe

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. PROCESO ABALLE Y QUINDALA alias "SISOY", defendant-appellant.

G.R. No. L-45087 | 1984-10-23

D E C I S I O N


FERNANDO, C.J.:

It is all the more imperative for this Court in appeals from convictions for rape, when complainant, as in this case, is a young girl below the statutory age of twelve - in this particular case even more deserving of sympathy as she is mentally retarded - to take extreme care in the scrutiny of the records of the case. This is so because the penalty imposable on the perpetrator of such a foul deed is one of the most severe - and rightly so. The State, in its role as parens patriae, can do no less in the discharge of its responsibility to assure the well-being of the young. 1 Moreover, the constitutional...