THE Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of the head teacher of a school for sexually abusing a 16-year-old student whom he had promised to help with her failing grades.
In a ruling promulgated on April 25, 2025, the appellate court’s sixteenth division junked the appeal of the teacher, which impugned the student’s credibility and her motive for filing the case.
The appellate court also dismissed the teacher’s contention that sexual relations between them were consensual.
In upholding the teacher’s conviction for sexual abuse and or exploitation under Republic Act 7610, or the Anti-Child Abuse Law, the appellate court, through Associate Justice Jennifer Joy Ong, said the prosecution established the elements of sexual abuse in the case, adding that “it is not necessary for force, threat, or intimidation” to be used against the victim for the respondent to be held liable for sexual abuse.
“This is especially true in the case of young, innocent, and immature girls who could not be expected to act with nerves of steel and equanimity of disposition,” the CA ruling said in part, adding that the multiple sexual incidents between the teacher who was 51 years old at the time and the student could not have happened without the teacher’s influence and coercion of the student.
“Records reveal that as head teacher, the accused-appellant exerted some form of compulsion upon her when he told her that he could fix her failing grades in exchange for sexual intercourse,” it added.
The CA said that if not for the accused’s assurance to help her with her failing grades, the latter would not have acceded to his request for sexual favors.
It added that the dignity of the victim was further debased when the accused offered her money after every sexual encounter.
The appellate court said the accused’s denials and self-serving assertions cannot prevail over the victim’s testimony, which it said was “candid and consistent” throughout.
The appellate court also upheld the legality of the entrapment operation that led to the arrest of the accused, saying it was carried out based on the messages he sent to the student inviting her to his house. The victim’s parents saw the messages on her phone.
The CA sentenced the accused to imprisonment of a minimum of eight years to a maximum of 17 years for sexual abuse, and eight to 10 years for other acts of abuse he perpetrated on the victim.
The CA also ordered him to pay the victim P50,000 for each of the five counts of sexual abuse.
