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PEOPLE. Vs. Jose San Buenaventura

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. JOSE SAN BUENAVENTURA, defendant-appellant.

G.R. No. L-50386 | 1988-08-08

D E C I S I O N


CORTES, J.:

Article 335 (3) of the Revised Penal Code defines and penalizes statutory rape. "The gravamen of the offense is the carnal knowledge of a woman below 12 years old." [People v. Villegas, Jr., G.R. No. 60386, January 30, 1984, 127 SCRA 195, 200.] Thus the issue of force or intimidation employed by the offender, or whether or not the woman is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious at the time a man had carnal knowledge of her becomes immaterial.

The above provision is applied in this case, the facts of which are as follows:

On June 24, 1975 Remedios Ragasa filed a criminal complaint before the Municipal...