very nature, by the facts to which they are related, by the circumstances of the persons performing the same, and by the things connected therewith, they must show without any doubt, that they are aimed at the consummation of a crime. Acts susceptible of double interpretation, that is, in favor as well as against the culprit, and which show an innocent as well as a punishable act, must not and cannot furnish grounds by themselves for attempted or frustrated crimes. The relation existing between the facts submitted for appreciation and the offense of which said facts are supposed to produce must be direct; the intention must be ascertained from the facts and therefore it is necessary, in order to avoid regrettable instance of injustice, that the mind be able to directly infer from them the intention of the perpetrator to cause a particular injury. This must have been the intention of the legislator in requiring that in order for an attempt to exist, the offender must commence the commission of the felony directly by overt acts, that is to say, that the acts performed must be such that, without the intent to commit an offense, they would be meaningless."15 To ascertain whether the acts performed by the petitioner constituted attempted rape, we have to determine the law on rape in effect on December 21, 1993, when the petitioner committed the crime he was convicted of. That law was Article 335 of the Revised Penal Code, which pertinently provided as follows: Article 335. When and how rape is committed. — Rape is committed by having carnal knowledge of a woman under any of the following circumstances: ChanRoblesVi rtua lawlib rary 1. By using force or intimidation; chanrobles law 2. When the woman is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious; and 3. When the woman is under twelve years of age, even though neither of the circumstances mentioned in the two next preceding paragraphs shall be present. xxxx The basic element of rape then and now is carnal knowledge of a female. Carnal knowledge is defined simply as "the act of a man having sexual bodily connections with a woman,"16 which explains why the slightest penetration of the female genitalia consummates the rape. In other words, rape is consummated once the penis capable of consummating the sexual act touches the external genitalia of the female.17 In People v. Campuhan,18 the Court has defined the extent of "touching" by the penis in rape in the following terms: ChanRoblesVi rt ualawlib ra ry [T]ouching when applied to rape cases docs not simply mean mere epidermal contact, stroking or grazing of organs, a slight brush or a scrape of the penis on the external layer of the victim's vagina, or the mons pubis, as in this case. There must be sufficient and convincing proof that the penis indeed touched the labias or slid into the female organ, and not merely stroked the external surface thereof, for an accused to be convicted of consummated rape. As the labias, which are required to be "touched" by the penis, are by their natural situs or location beneath the mons pubis or the vaginal surface, to touch them with the penis is to attain some degree of penetration beneath the surface, hence, the conclusion that touching the labia majora or the labia