TITLE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES vs.

EDGAR JUMAWAN

GR NUMBER 187495

DATE April 21, 2014

PONENTE REYES, J.

NATURE/ Marital rape, equal protection

KEYWORDS

FACTS KKK filed two counts of rape against her husband that happened
on October 16 and 17, 1998.
October 16, 1998, Accused-appellant forced her to have sex with
him despite her refusal. He initially ordered her to sleep beside him
in their conjugal bed by violently throwing the cot where she was
resting. In order not to aggravate his temper, KKK obeyed. On the
bed, he insinuated for them to have sex. When she rejected his
advances due to abdominal pain and headache, his request for
intimacy transformed into a stubborn demand. Unyielding, KKK
held her panties but the accused-appellant forcibly pulled them
down. The tug caused the small clothing to tear apart. She
reiterated that she was not feeling well and begged him to stop.
But no amount of resistance or begging subdued him. He flexed
her two legs apart, gripped her hands, mounted her, rested his own
legs on hers and inserted his penis into her vagina. She continued
pleading but he never desisted.
Her accurate recollection of the second rape incident on October 1
7, 1998 is likewise unmistakable. After the appalling episode in
the conjugal bedroom the previous night, KKK decided to sleep in
the children's bedroom. While her daughters were fixing the
beddings, the accused-appellant barged into the room and berated
her for refusing to go with him to their conjugal bedroom. When
KKK insisted to stay in the children's bedroom, the accused-
appellant got angry and pulled her up. MMM's attempt to pacify
the accused-appellant further enraged him. He reminded them that
as the head of the family he could do whatever he wants with his
wife. To demonstrate his role as patriarch, he ordered the children
to go out of the room and thereafter proceeded to force KKK into
sexual intercourse. He forcibly pulled down her short pants and
 panties as KKK begged "Dont do that to me, my body is still
aching and also my abdomen and I cannot do what you wanted me
to do. I cannot withstand sex." But her pleas fell on deaf ears. The
accused-appellant removed his shorts and briefs, spread KKK's
legs apart, held her hands, mounted her and inserted his penis into
her vagina. After gratifying himself, he got dressed, left the room
as he chuckled: "Its nice, that is what you deserve because you are
[a] flirt or fond of sex.”

ISSUE(S) Can there be a marital rape?

RULING(S) Yes. The Supreme Court held that husbands do not have
property rights over their wives’ bodies. Sexual intercourse,
albeit within the realm of marriage, if not consensual, is rape.
The Court ruled that to treat marital rape cases differently from
non-marital rape cases in terms of the elements that constitute the
crime and in the rules for their proof, infringes on the equal
protection clause. The Constitutional right to equal protection of
the laws ordains that similar subjects should not be treated
differently, so as to give undue favor to some and unjustly
discriminate against others; no person or class of persons shall be
denied the same protection of laws, which is enjoyed, by other
persons or other classes in like circumstances.

As above discussed, the definition of rape in Section 1 of R.A. No.

8353 pertains to: (a) rape, as traditionally known; (b) sexual
assault; and (c) marital rape or that where the victim is the
perpetrator's own spouse. The single definition for all three forms
of the crime shows that the law does not distinguish between rape
committed in wedlock and those committed without a marriage.

Hence, the law affords protection to women raped by their

husband and those raped by any other man alike.