G.R. No. 38125 - People of the Philippines vs. Aurelio S. del Prado, et al.

Republic of the Philippines
SUPREME COURT
Manila

EN BANC

G.R. No. 38125             October 28, 1933

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS,plaintiff-appellee,
vs.
AURELIO S. DEL PRADO (aliasMcCARTHY),defendant-appellant.

V.D. Carpio for appellant.
Office of the Solicitor-General Hilado for appellee.

BUTTE,J.:

This is an appeal from the judgment of the Court of First Instance of Zamboanga, convicting the appellant of the crime of rape with grave physical injury and sentencing him to suffer twenty years ofreclusion temporal. On this appeal only on error is assigned, namely, that the prosecution failed to prove that the crime was committed in the territory embraced with the court's jurisdiction. There is no merit in this contention. Apart from the fact that there is direct testimony that the barrio of Calarian is in the municipality of Zamboanga (page 13 of the transcript), there is no question that the court may take judicial notice that said barrio is within the geographical limits of the municipality of Zamboanga. (Cf. Peoplevs. Samonte, G.R. No. 36559, promulgated July 26, 1932.)¹

In criminal cases, this court does not confine its review to the errors assigned.1awphil.netWe have therefore carefully examined the entire record in this case in view of the heinousness of the offense and gravity of the sentence. There are some details in the story told by the offended girl which seem to us incredible and set a doubt upon her veracity. But there is other and independent corroboratory evidence as to the essentials of the crime, thecorpus delicti, properly so called, which points to the guilt of the defendant beyond reasonable doubt.

The judgment appealed from is affirmed with costsde oficio.

Street, Abad Santos, Vickers, and Imperial, JJ., concur.

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