Cambronero, Shayrie Wynne A.

JD4101
Tablizo, Michelle Marie S. Legal Writing

In the case of People vs. Genosa, Marivic Genosa was charged

with the crime of Parricide. She admitted that she killed her husband,
Ben Genosa, and was praying for her acquittal with a plea of self
defense, which is constituted by the “battered woman syndrome.”

According to Marivic, in the early years of her marriage with

Ben, everything was good and they are living happily together. But
Ben’s behaviour changed, he became cruel, a habitual drinker and
was involved into gambling, especially cockfighting. He would always
come home drunk, and would always start a fight with her resulting to
physical violence, which happens at least three times a week until the
night of November 15, 1995. That night, Marivic came home from
work and found out that her husband is not home yet, so she looked
for him together with her cousin, Ecel. When she arrived home, Ben
was already there and was in his usual behaviour when he is drunk.
He started yelling at Marivic, but Marivic just ignored him to avoid
trouble which made him angrier. He got a bolo and was about to
attack Marivic when she managed to run and screamed for help and
then Ben left. When Ben returned home, he got angry again because
Marivic packed his clothes. He dragged Marivic to the drawer, inside
the drawer was a gun, and when he cannot open the drawer because
it was locked, he then pulled his wallet with the blade that he formerly
used when he wanted to cut Marivic’s throat. Marivic smashed his
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arm and the wallet and the blade fell, when he was about to pick-up
the wallet and the blade, she smashed him with a pipe and ran to the
other room. She then opened the drawer, fearing for her own life and
the life of her unborn child, trapped and feeling helpless get the gun
from the drawer and shot his husband. The next day she left Leyte
and was arrested in Laguna.

Marivic filed an Urgent Omnibus Motion, which was partly

granted by the Supreme Court. It remanded the case to the trial court
for reception of expert psychological and/or psychiatric opinion on the
“battered woman syndrome” plea. This leads the case to whether or
not Marivic Genosa can use the battered woman syndrome as a
defense.

The court affirmed the decision of the lower courts in

sentencing Marivic Genosa with the crime of Parricide. According to
the court she failed to prove that she is indeed suffering from battered
woman syndrome. The court also ruled that to be able to use the
battered woman syndrome as a defense, the three phases of the
syndrome should be present, namely the tension-building phase, the
acute battering incident, and the tranquil, loving phase.
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The phases must be clearly proven that, the battering stage

should inflict fear in the victim resulting to her thinking that she should
protect herself using force and the baterrer, should be proven to
have caused excessive harm to the victim upon the killing. With this,
the court ruled that Marivic fall short of proving all the three phases.
The court believes that when Ben got his sleep, the danger already
ceases.

Justice Santiago, in her dissenting opinion, believed that the

defense of Marivic was able to establish the occurrence of the three
phases of the syndrome and that there is no doubt that Marivic was
suffering battered woman syndrome and was defending herself when
she killed her husband. Marivic was able to present clear and
convincing evidence that she was a battered woman for 13-14 years
and that she suffered from the battered woman syndrome. Therefore,
Justice Santiago voted for the acquittal of Marivic Genosa.