Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FACTS
Felipe delos Santos was sentenced to supreme penalty of death for raping his
stepdaughter on September 12, 1994. Nhanette delos Santos who is a minor and 13 by
that time.
On January 5, 2000, accused appellant filed to reopen the case citing People v Medina
and People v Gallo as to reduce the death penalty to reclusion pertpetua arguing that
information filed against the accused appellant failed to include the relationship of him as
ISSUE
Whether the relationship of the accused appellant to the victim influences the sentence
RULING
The relationship of the accused appellant did influenced the ruling of this Court for it was stated
cannot also be considered as an aggravating circumstance to increase the liability as the penalty
for simple rape is the single indivisible penalty of reclusion perpetua under Article 63 of the
RPC.
Thus, the motion to reopen the case is GRANTED and the sentence be MODIFIED from death