Rustan Ang Pascua Vs. Honorable Court of Appeals and Irish Sagud G.R. No.

182835 April 20, 2010

RUSTAN ANG y PASCUA, Petitioner, Vs. THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS and IRSH SAGUD, Respondents,

Facts: Rustan Ang and Irish Sagud were on-and- off sweethearts, when the latter learned afterwards that Rustan had taken a live-in partner (now his wife), whom he gotten pregnant, Irish broke up with him. Prior to the marriage of Rustan, he got in touch with Irish and tried to convince her to elope with him. Irish rejected the proposal and changed her cellphone number but Rustan somehow managed to get hold of it and sent her text messages, using the following numbers: 0920-4769301 and 0921-8084768. Irish replied to his text messages but it was to ask him to leave her alone. In the early morning of June 5, 2005, Irish received through multimedia message (MMS) a picture of a naked woman with spread legs and with Irishs face superimposed on the figure. The senders cellphone number, stated in the message, was 0921-8084768, one of the numbers Rustan used. Rustan boasted that it would be easy for him to create similarly scandalous pictures and threatened to spread the picture through the internet. One of the messages he sent to Irish was: Madali lang ikalat yun, my chatrum ang tarlac rayt pwede ring send sa lahat ng chatter. Irish sought the help of Vice Mayor Maria Aurora who referred her to the police. Under the police supervision, Irish contacted Rustan through the cellphone number he used in sending the picture and his text messages. Irish asked Rustan if he could meet her at Lorentess Resort. Rustan came with a motorcycle and was arrested by the police upon walking towards Irish. The police searched him and seized his Sony Ericsson P900 cellphone and several SIM cards. Irish filed a case in violation of Sec 5 (h) of Republic Act 9262. The RTC found Irishs testimony completely credible, given in an honest and spontaneous manner. Thus the RTC found Rustan guilty of the said crime. Rustan appealed but denied, then raised the case to the higher court. Issues: Whether or not the accused Rustan sent Irish by cellphone message the picture pasted with her face pasted on the body of a nude woman, inflicting anguish, psychological distress, and humiliation on her in violation of Sec 5 (h) of RA 9262. The subordinate issues are: 1) Whether or not a dating relationship existed between Rustan and Irish as this term is defined in RA 9262 2) Whether or not a single act of harassment, like sending the nude picture in this case, constitutes a violation of Sec 5 (h) of RA 9262 3) Whether or not the evidence used to convict Rustan was obtained from him in violation of his constitutional rights; and 4) Whether or not the RTC properly admitted in evidence the obscene picture presented in the case

Held: 1) Yes. Dating relationship as defined in Section 3 refers to a situation wherein the parties live as husband and wife without the benefit of marriage or are romantically involved over time and on a continuing basis during the course of the relationship. A casual acquaintance or ordinary socialization between two individuals in a business or social context is not a dating relationship. 2) Yes. Section 3 (a) of RA 9262 punishes any act or series of acts that constitutes violence against women.This means that a single act of harassment, which translates into violence, would be enough. The object of the law is to protect women and children. Punishing only violence that is repeatedly committed would license isolated ones. 3) No. Prosecution did not present in evidence either the cellphone or the SIM cards that the police officers seized from him at the time of the arrest. The prosecution did not need such items to prove its case. Exhibit C for the prosecution was but a photograph depicting the Sony Ericsson P900 cellphone that was used, which cellphone Rustan admitted owning during pre-trial conference. Moreover, Rustan admitted having sent the malicious text message to Irish. 4) The objection is too late since he should have objected to the admission of the picture on such ground at the time it was offered in evidence. He should be deemed to have already waived such ground for objection. Besides, the rules he cites do not apply to the present criminal action. The Rules on Electronic Evidence applies only to civil actions, quasi judicial proceedings, and administrative proceedings.

The court AFFIRMED the decision of RTC