sic itur ad astra

     ⚠️ Trigger Warning: Rape  ⚠️       Marital Rape |  Criminal Law Facts: Edgar Jumawan  and his wife, KKK, were married on October 18, 1975. They Iived together since then and raised their four (4) children as they put up several businesses over the years. KKK executed a Complaint-Affidavit, alleging that her husband, the accused-appellant, raped her at 3 :00 a.m. at their residence and that the accused-appellant boxed her shoulder for refusing to have sex with him. Two Informations for Violation of R.A. 8353, the Anti-Rape Law of 1997, were filed before the RTC. The RTC sustained the version proffered by the prosecution by giving greater weight and credence to the spontaneous and straightforward testimonies of the prosecution's witnesses. The trial court also upheld as sincere and genuine the two daughters' testimonies, as it is not natural in our culture for daughters to testify against their own father for a crime such as rape if t...

      RA 9262 Jurisdiction |  Criminal Law Facts: BBB being then legally married to AAA, caused AAA mental and emotional anguish by having an illicit relationship with a certain Lisel Mok as confirmed by his photograph with his purported paramour Lisel Mok and her children and the e-mailed letter by his mother mentioning about the said relationship, to the damage and prejudice of AAA. Petitioner AAA and BBB were married in 2006 in Quezon City. Their union produced two children.  In 2007, BBB started working in Singapore as a chef, where he acquired permanent resident status in September of 2008. This petition nonetheless indicates his address to be in Quezon City where his parents reside and where AAA also resided from the time they were married until March of 2010, when AAA and their children moved back to her parents' house in Pasig City. AAA claimed, that BBB sent little to no financial support, and only sporadically. This allegedly compelled her to fly extra...

       Section 5( h ) of RA 9262 |  Criminal Law Facts: Irish Sagud and accused Rustan Ang were classmates at Wesleyan University in Aurora Province. Rustan courted Irish and they became "on-and-off" sweethearts towards the end of 2004. When Irish learned afterwards that Rustan had taken a live-in partner (now his wife), whom he had gotten pregnant, Irish broke up with him. Before Rustan got married, however, he got in touch with Irish and tried to convince her to elope with him, saying that he did not love the woman he was about to marry. Irish rejected the proposal and told Rustan to take on his responsibility to the other woman and their child. Irish changed her cellphone number but Rustan somehow managed to get hold of it and sent her text messages. Irish received through multimedia message service (MMS) a picture of a naked woman with spread legs and with Irish’s face superimposed on the figure.  After she got the obscene picture, Irish got other ...

      Section 5( i ) of RA 9262 |  Criminal Law Facts: Esteban Reyes was charged with violation of Section 5(e) of RA 9262 for withholding financial support from AAA. The RTC issued a Temporary Protection Order (TPO) and a Hold Departure Order (HDO) against Reyes. The TPO was later made permanent.  Reyes filed a Motion to Quash the Information, arguing that the allegations do not constitute the crime of violation of Section 5(e), par. 2. The RTC ruled that Reyes is being charged with violation of Section 5(i) of R.A. No. 9262 and directed the prosecutor to amend the Information.  The RTC held that the amendment of the Information was proper, since Reyes has not been arraigned at that time. AAA and Reyes were married on May 15, 1969. Four children were born out of this union. Reyes was seldom at home since he was a pilot. Sometime in 2005, AAA learned that Reyes got married to a certain Marilou Osias Ramboanga who had borne him four children and wi...

     Section 5( e ) of RA 9262 |  Criminal Law Facts: Celso Melgar was charged with violation of Section 5(e) of RA 9262 for committing acts of economic abuse against AAA and her illegitimate son, BBB (12 years old), by depriving them of financial support, which caused mental or emotional anguish, public ridicule or humiliation, to AAA and her son. After arraignment wherein Melgar pleaded not guilty to the charge against him, he and AAA entered into a compromise agreement on the civil aspect of the case. After the RTC's approval of the compromise agreement on June 24, 2010, the criminal aspect of the case was provisionally dismissed with Melgar's conformity.  However, one year later, or on June 24, 2011, the prosecution moved to set aside the compromise agreement and to revive the criminal action, on the ground that Melgar sold the property, which was supposed to, among others, answer for the support-in-arrears of his son, BBB, from 2001 to 2010 pursua...

    Section 5( a ) of RA 9262 |  Criminal Law Facts: Karlo Dabalos was charged with violation of Section 5(a) of RA 9262 before the RTC of Angeles City for using  personal violence on the complainant ABC , by pulling her hair, punching her back, shoulder and left eye, thereby demeaning and degrading her intrinsic worth and dignity as a human being. After examining the supporting evidence, the RTC found probable cause and consequently, issued a warrant of arrest against petitioner. Petitioner averred that at the time of the alleged incident on July 13, 2009, he was no longer in a dating relationship with private respondent; hence, RA 9262 was inapplicable. In her affidavit, private respondent admitted that her relationship with petitioner had ended prior to the subject incident. She narrated that on July 13, 2009, she sought payment of the money she had lent to petitioner but the latter could not pay. She then inquired from petitioner if he was responsible f...

  RA 8049  Anti-Hazing Law  |  Criminal Law Facts: Fernando C. Balidoy, Jr. was admitted as a probationary midshipman at the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy. He was required to complete the mandatory "Indoctrination and Orientation Period," which was set from 2 May to 1 June 2001, in order to reach active status. However, Balidoy died on 3 May 2001.  The National Bureau of Investigation investigated his death. After months of investigation, it forwarded its findings to the provincial prosecutor who found probable cause to charge some individuals, Alvarez et al.,  as principals of hazing. A  criminal case against them was then filed with RTC–Zambales. The Assistant Provincial Prosecutor  also endorsed to the Deputy Ombudsman for the Military to charge some school authorities, Bayabos et al., as accomplices. The Office of the Special Prosecutor eventually filed with the Sandiganbayan a criminal case charging the school authori...