This is an automatic review of the decision of the RTC in
view of the death sentence imposed upon Danny Godoy, who was charged in two separate informations with rape and another for kidnapping with serious illegal detention. Complainant Mia Taha alleged that Godoy, her Physics Teacher and a married man raped her first on Jan. 21, 1994 in her cousin’s boarding house wherein upon entering the back door, Godoy pointed a knife at her. As Godoy removed her panties and brought out his penis to rape her, a knife was pointed at her neck. As such, she was not able to resist. The next day, Godoy came by their house and asked the permission of her parents if she can join him in soliciting funds, since Mia was a candidate for Ms. Palawan National School (PNS). Mia’s parents allowed her to go with Godoy and she was allegedly brought to the Sunset Garden Motel where she was repeatedly raped again. After three days, they transferred to Edward’s subdivision where she was kept in a lodging house and was again raped. During this time, a police blotter had already been placed for the missing Mia. She was later released by Godoy after a certain Naem interceded and only after her parents agreed to settle the case. It was after Mia’s return that her parents accompanied her to a medico-legal which found lacerations in her vagina concluding that “she just had sexual intercourse .” She and her mother Helen went to the police and executed sworn statements stating that the accused Godoy had raped and abducted Mia. Godoy denied that he raped Mia Taha. He admitted having had sex with her and that they indeed stayed in Sunset Gardens and in Edward’s Subdivision, but it was because they were lovers and that Mia had consented to their having sex. To support his claim that they were lovers, he presented two letters supposedly delivered to him in the provincial jail while he was detained by Mia’s cousin Lorna. There Mia explained that it was her parents who forced her to testify against him. The delivery of the letter was denied by Lorna but the defense presented the provincial jail guard on duty on the supposed date of the delivery and testified that indeed Lorna had visited Godoy on said date. Several witnesses were also presented including two former teachers of Mia who knew the handwriting on the two said letters as belonging to Mia having been their former student and where thus familiar with her handwriting particularly those made in her test papers. Other witnesses were presented by the defense attesting that they saw the two together in a manner that was affectionate and cordial, prior to the said “kidnapping” and even during such.
ISSUE:
Whether the prosecution was able to prove beyond
reasonable doubt the guilt of the accused
RULING:
The Supreme Court acquitted Danny Godoy .Three guiding
principles in the appellate review of the evidence of the prosecution for the crime of rape, namely: a) while rape is a most detestable crime, it must be borne in mind that it is an accusation easy to be made, hard to be proved, but harder to be defended by the party accused, though innocent; b) the testimony of the complainant must be scrutinized with extreme caution; and c) that the evidence for the prosecution must stand or fall on its own merits and cannot be allowed to draw strength from the weakness of the evidence for the defense. Mia claimed that the appellant always carried a knife but it was never explained how she was threatened with the same in such a manner that she was allegedly always cowed into giving in to his innumerable sexual demands. In taking judicial notice, the Supreme Court said that it is not unaware that in rape cases, the claim of the complainant of having been threatened appears to be a common testimonial expedient and face-saving subterfuge. But it had not been duly corroborated by other evidence nor proved that the accused indeed always carried a knife. T h e S C al s o t a ke s ju d i c i al c o g n i z a n c e o f t h e f ac t t h at i n r u r al ar e as ( s u c h as i n Palawan) young ladies are strictly required to act with circumspection and prudence. Great caution is observed so that their reputations shall remain untainted. Any breath of scandal which brings dishonor to their character humiliates their entire families. It could precisely be that complainant’s mother wanted to save face in the community where everybody knows everybody else, and in an effort to conceal her daughter’s indiscretion and escape wagging tongues of their small rural community, she had to weave the scenario of this rape drama.