Incestuous father has no place in Phl society – SC

Fathers who rape their own daughters are lower than a “lowly animal” and deserve no place in Philippine society, the Supreme Court (SC) declared in its recent ruling that affirmed the two life sentences on an accused who had sexually abused his own daughter for years.

In an eight-page decision released on Feb. 8, the SC denied the father in question’s appeal to reverse a regional trial court’s guilty verdict against him and the Court of Appeals’ affirmation of the decision for raping his daughter on multiple occasions.

“A father who rapes his own daughter, whom he is supposed to protect, descends to a level lower than the lowly animal that yields only to biological impulses and is unfettered by social inhibitions when it mates with its own kin,” the SC decision read. It added: “The father, by giving in to his incestuous lust, forfeits all respect as a human being and is justly spumed by all, not least of all by the fruit of his own loins whose progeny he has forever stained with his shameful and shameless lechery.”

Court records showed that the victim’s parents had separated when she was little and that her father was jailed when she was eight years old. When her father was released from prison, he took custody of the then 13-year-old.

She told the court that during the time she lived with her father, he had raped her multiple times and threatened to kill her if she would tell anyone about it.

The victim recalled that after another such incident in October 2016, she decided to tell her neighbor about it and got help to report her father’s crime to police.

“The RTC found AAA’s (victim’s name withheld) testimony credible and worthy of belief. Further, the RTC held… (the) findings of the physician consistent with the findings of AAA’s narration… The appellate court held that there is no standard form of behavior when one is confronted by a startling event, thus whatever behavior was displayed by AAA cannot be considered questionable or against human experience,” read the SC decision.

“We find no cogent reason to disturb the findings of both the appellate and trial courts,” the SC added.

The SC sentenced the father to life imprisonment without parole for the two counts of qualified rape, since the victim’s complaint had only identified two specific dates of the incestuous rape – Aug. 13, 2014 and Oct. 14, 2016. The father was also ordered to pay P300,000 in civil indemnity, moral and exemplary damages with an interest of six percent yearly from the date of the resolution until fully paid.

“Such a ‘father’ deserves no place in Philippine society, whose fundamental law considers the family as a basic autonomous social institution and the foundation of the nation, recognizes the sanctity of family life, and cloaks with special protection the right of children against all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their development,” the SC wrote.