Facts: On July 17, 1991,13-year old Raquel was raped by Salvador, the common law husband of her mother Lydia. Raquel related the incident to her mother but was ignored. She transferred to her sister and her husband in May 1992, and peacefully lived with them for five years, when one evening, as she was walking home, Salvador armed with a balisong, suddenly emerged from the bushes, grabbed her and warned her not to shout. Her struggle notwithstanding, Salvador was able to force her to lie on the grass. He went on top of her and tried to remove her pants. She continued to fight him off and managed to shout. Fortunately, Aurora Castro and Florentina Ausena, who lived in the same barangay. heard the cries and approached. Salvador ran away but Florentina and Aurora recognized him immediately, because Salvador was a townmate and the place was illuminated.
Issues:
1) Whether the crime of attempted rape was committed.
2) Whether the circumstance of relationship will qualify the crime and raise the penalty to death.
Held: Attempted rape was committed. He had commenced the commission of the crime of rape directly by overt acts evidently with intent to have carnal knowledge of her against her will - but he failed to perform all the acts of execution which would have produced the crime of rape - not because of his spontaneous desistance but by the timely arrival of two persons who heard the victim's cries for help.
The information alleges that Salvador is the stepfather of the victim. This circumstance of relationship when coupled with minority of the victim is a special qualifying circumstance, which makes the imposition of the death penalty mandatory. However, Salvador, is merely the common-law-spouse of Raquel’s mother. Under the law, the relationship of stepfather presupposes a legitimate relationship. While the fact of being the common-law-spouse of the parent of the victim is also a qualifying circumstance under RA 7659, the same was not alleged in the information. Moreover, the victim was already above 18 years old when the attempted rape was committed.
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