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People of the Philippines Vs. Valentin Sabal y Parba, Jr.

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Appellee, vs. VALENTIN SABAL y P ARBA, JR., Appellant.Notably, Dr. Galang’s medical findings showed that both victims suffered hymenal lacerations on their private part; she also testified that there had been penetration of the victims’ vagina. The Court held in People v. Perez,8 that [h]ymenal lacerations, whether healed or fresh, are the best evidence of forcible defloration. And when the consistent and forthright testimony of a rape victim is consistent with medical findings, there is sufficient basis to warrant a conclusion that the essential requisites of carnal knowledge have been established. We find unmeritorious the appellant’s twin defenses of denial and alibi. Denial could not prevail over the victim’s direct, positive and categorical assertion. In like manner, for alibi to prosper, it is not enough for the accused to prove that he was somewhere else when the crime was committed. He must also prove that he could not have been physically present at the scene of the crime or its immediate vicinity at the time of its commission. In the present case, the appellant admitted that he was also in Malaybalay City when the incidents happened. It is settled that alibi necessarily fails when there is positive evidence of the physical presence of the accused at the crime scene or its immediate vicinity.9 We modify the crime committed by the appellant in Criminal Case Nos. 13103-03 and 13104-03 from statutory rape to qualified rape. The presented evidence10 showed that AAA and BBB were ten (10) and seven (7) years old, respectively, when the appellant raped them on May 2, 2003.

G.R. No. 201861 | 2014-06-02

SECOND DIVISION

 

RESOLUTION


BRION,J.:

 

We decide the appeal, filed by appellant Valentin Sabal, Jr., challenging the February 8, 2012 decision1 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. CR HC No. 00795. The assailed CA decision affirmed with modification the August 20, 2008 decision2 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 8, City of Malaybalay, which found the appellant guilty beyond reasonable doubt of two (2) counts of statutory rape.


In its decision dated August 20, 2008, the RTC convicted the appellant of two counts of statutory rape for having carnal knowledge with two his nieces, AAA and BBB...