24

Jul

PEOPLE VS. AQUINO (GR No. 87084, June 1990, 186 SCRA 851)

FACTS: Juanito Aquino was charged of rape with homicide. The victim, Carmelita Morado, was able to
give a statement to a policeman before dying. She said that she was raped by the accused and struck with
a stone on the head. The accused was found to be suffering from a mental disorder classified under
organic mental disorder with psychosis. He was previously confined at the Mental Hospital. The
prosecution, on the other hand, presented an array of witnesses to prove that the appellant was lucid
before and after the crime was committed and that he acted with discernment.

ISSUE: Whether or not appellant, who has invoked insanity as he defense, has overcome the
presumption of insanity

HELD: No. The presumption is always in favor of sanity and the burden of proof of insanity is on the
defense which they failed to do. The doctor said that a person suffering from insanity may know what he
is doing is wrong. He also observed that the mental illness of the accused came on and off. The presence
of his reasoning faculties, which enabled him to exercise sound judgment and satisfactorily articulate the
aforesaid matters, sufficiently discounts any intimation of insanity of the accused when he committed
the felonies.