SECOND DIVISION
[ G.R. No. 214673, November 20, 2017 ]
RIZALDO L. ORSOS, PETITIONER, V. PEOPLE OF THE
PHILIPPINES, RESPONDENT.
DECISION
PERLAS-BERNABE, J.:
Assailed in this petition for review on certiorari[1] are the Decision[2] dated June 21,
2013 and the Resolution[3] dated September 3, 2014 rendered by the Court of
Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. CEB-CR No. 01574, which affirmed with modification the
Decision[4] dated October 5, 2010 of the Regional Trial Court of Mambusao, Capiz,
Branch 20 (RTC) finding petitioner Rizaldo L. Orsos (petitioner) guilty beyond
reasonable doubt for acts of lasciviousness, defined and penalized under Article 336
of the Revised Penal Code (RPC), as amended, and sentenced him to suffer the
indeterminate penalty of imprisonment for a period of three (3) months and one (1)
day of arresto mayor, as minimum, to two (2) years and five (5) months of prision
correccional, as maximum, and to pay the amounts of P25,000.00 as moral
damages and P25,000.00 as civil indemnity.
The Facts
At the time material to this case, the minor victim (AAA[5]) was only fourteen (14)
years old, having been born on July 6, 1992, as evidenced by her Certificate of Live
Birth.[6] She was then a third year high school student at Dumalag Central National
High School (DCNHS) in Dumalag, Capiz, where petitioner was then working as a
teacher and Citizen's Army Training (CAT) Commandant.[7] AAA was one of
petitioner's students.[8]
At around 9:30 in the morning of April 21, 2007, while the CAT trainees, including
AAA, were at the Sohot Spring in Dumalag for a clean-up drive, petitioner called
AAA and asked her if she had decided on becoming a CAT officer, to which she
answered yes.[9] Petitioner then instructed her to go to his house at 1:00 in the
afternoon of the same day for her supposed initiation. As she did not know where
petitioner's house was located, she went back to the school at around 12:30 in the
afternoon instead and waited for him to arrive. When petitioner saw AAA, he told
her to follow him to his house and keep a little distance between them.[10]