Badges of truth

Usually, in the commission of a crime, there is no other direct evidence available that could link the accused if the victim dies. There is therefore a need to resort to circumstantial evidence like in this case of Baldo, who is charged with the crime of Rape with Homicide.

Baldo was a resident of a town in a Visayan island province. Among his neighbors was Nanay Maring who has a five-year-old granddaughter named Alice living with her. Alice has a friend and classmate Betty who lives with her father Nardo beside them. Also staying in the area is Mando, who has a farm nearby.

Almost every noontime after class Alice and Betty usually play together. The incident happened when the two girls were playing with mud forming it into objects underneath their house. Thereafter they went to pick santol then went biking. Then Alice turned to the pathway going to her Nanay Maring’s house. As Betty followed her, Alice went to a place where there was a gemelina plant with Baldo, who was often seen in Nanay Maring’s house. Betty kept on looking at Baldo and Alice as they headed to another barangay. She even tried to pull Alice away from Baldo but could not because Alice was heavy and she was also afraid she might be made to go with them. Then Alice and Baldo headed in the direction of another barangay until they disappeared from view. So Betty said she just went home, played some more and ate lunch.

Another resident in the area, Mando, also saw Alice and Baldo being followed by Betty while on his way home from the farm. Baldo was a little bit ahead of the two girls. He went home but at about 3 o’clock he learned that Alice was missing and thus looked for her. Nardo, the father of Betty who woke up after taking a nap, was also prevailed upon to look for Alice in the flattened grasses near coconut trees at the side of the road. Betty told her father that Alice was walking with a man when he disappeared going to the direction of a gemelina tree. It was Nardo who found the dead body of Alice covered with leaves in the flattened grasses, lying face up with both legs apart, elevated to the higher level of the ground. Her white dress was raised and her panty was about one meter away from her dead body. It was Betty who told him that Baldo was the drunk person who took Alice, and Nardo knows Baldo because he is a barkada of his two teenaged sons and he often came to their house. Lando and Cardo, the barangay tanods also helped in searching for Alice and when she was found, policemen came and examined the body, which was brought to the town proper. Lando and Cardo looked for Baldo and found him in the house of Nanay Maring, drunk and uneasy.

Post mortem examination found the victim Alice in the state of rigor mortis with hematomas in the periphery of the vaginal area. Thus, Baldo was charged with rape with homicide. He denied the charge and claimed that when the crime happened, he was at the house of Nanay Maring repairing 4 electric fans with her sons. He saw Alice drop her bag then went outside. He said he never left the house until he was asked by the sons of Nanay Maring to look for Alice. When they did not find her, they returned to the house where he was arrested by the barangay tanods and charged with the crime.

After trial, the RTC found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt of rape with homicide because he was the last person seen with the victim on or about the time she was killed. This was modified by the Court of Appeals (CA) which found him guilty of attempted rape with homicide only because the doctor who examined the victim did not find her vagina even slightly penetrated.

The Supreme Court affirmed this decision of the CA. The SC said that while there is no direct evidence presented that could link Baldo to the commission of the crime since the victim is dead, pieces of circumstantial evidence combined together produced a conviction beyond reasonable doubt as follows: First, Betty positively identified him as the last person seen with the victim. The testimonies of a child are normally given full weight and credit for youth and immaturity are generally badges of truth and sincerity, especially in the absence of indubitable proof that the accused could not have committed the crime. Second, other prosecution witnesses corroborated the testimony of Betty, particularly Mando who saw Baldo walking with Betty and Alice and who had a bolo tucked in his waist. Third, the policeman testified that the bolo recovered from Baldo which was turned over to him along with the body of Alice, smelled of blood. He also saw blood stains in the lower part of the shirt of Baldo. Baldo’s denial, being a negative defense, deserves no weight in law if not substantiated by clear and convincing evidence.

The CA is also correct that rape was not consummated but only attempted. Based on the report of the doctor and his testimony, the perpetrator could have been trying to rape the victim but no other evidence indicates that the accused succeeded in having carnal knowledge of the victim. So Baldo is really guilty only of attempted rape with homicide and should suffer the penalty of Reclusion Perpetua (People vs. Cabornay, G.R. 250649, March 24, 2021)