shall not be eligible for parole pursuant to Section 3 of R.A. No. 9346, which states that "persons
convicted of offenses punished with reclusion perpetua, or whose sentences will be reduced to
reclusion perpetua, by reason of this Act, shall not be eligible for parole under Act No. 4180,
otherwise known as the Indeterminate Sentence Law, as amended."157
The Court sustains the moral damages awarded in the amount of ₱50,000.00. Moral damages are
granted to rape victims without need of proof other than the fact of rape under the assumption that
the victim suffered moral injuries from the experience she underwent.158
The award of civil indemnity is proper; it is mandatory upon the finding that rape took
place. Considering that the crime committed is simple rape, there being no qualifying circumstances
attendant in its commission, the appropriate amount is ₱50,000.00159 and not ₱75,000.00 as awarded
by the RTC.
1âwphi 1
To serve as an example for public good and in order to deter a similar form of domestic violence, an
award of ₱30,000.00 as exemplary damages is imperative.160
The damages awarded shall earn legal interest at the rate of six percent (6%) per annum to be
reckoned from the date of finality of this judgment until fully paid.161
A Final Note
Rape is a crime that evokes global condemnation because it is an abhorrence to a woman's value
and dignity as a human being. It respects no time, place, age, physical condition or social status. It
can happen anywhere and it can happen to anyone. Even, as shown in the present case, to a wife,
inside her time-honored fortress, the family home, committed against her by her husband who
vowed to be her refuge from cruelty. The herein pronouncement is an affirmation to wives that our
rape laws provide the atonement they seek from their sexually coercive husbands.
Husbands are once again reminded that marriage is not a license to forcibly rape their wives. A
husband does not own his wife's body by reason of marriage. By marrying, she does not divest
herself of the human right to an exclusive autonomy over her own body and thus, she can lawfully
opt to give or withhold her consent to marital coitus. A husband aggrieved by his wife's unremitting
refusal to engage in sexual intercourse cannot resort to felonious force or coercion to make her
yield. He can seek succor before the Family Courts that can determine whether her refusal
constitutes psychological incapacity justifying an annulment of the marriage.
Sexual intimacy is an integral part of marriage because it is the spiritual and biological communion
that achieves the marital purpose of procreation. It entails mutual love and self-giving and as such it
contemplates only mutual sexual cooperation and never sexual coercion or imposition.
The Court is aware that despite the noble intentions of the herein pronouncement, menacing
personalities may use this as a tool to harass innocent husbands. In this regard, let it be stressed
that safeguards in the criminal justice system are in place to spot and scrutinize fabricated or false
marital rape complaints and any person who institutes untrue and malicious charges will be made
answerable under the pertinent provisions of the RPC and/or other laws.
WHEREFORE, all the foregoing considered, the Decision dated July 9, 2008 of the Court of Appeals
in CA-G.R. CR-HC No. 00353 is hereby AFFIRMED with MODIFICATIONS. Accused-appellant
Edgar Jumawan is found GUILTY beyond reasonable doubt of two (2) counts of RAPE and is
sentenced to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua for each count, without eligibility for parole. He
is further ordered to pay the victim, KKK, the amounts of PS0,000.00 as civil indemnity, ₱50,000.00
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