Still, the High Court, through its Second Division, recently affirmed the sentence that the lower courts imposed on a man who was convicted of the crime committed against a 16-year-old girl.

“However, the Court stressed that it is duty bound to apply the law in full force and impose the proper penalty for the crime committed by the accused,” the High Court’s information office said.

Nevertheless, in issuing the ruling the SC Second Division stressed that it has taken notice of the accused’s manifestation that the penalty imposed could be too harsh if compared to the crime he may have committed.

“The Court further noted that it is not unmindful of the accused’s claim that the penalty imposed is disproportionate to the crime committed and the surrounding circumstances of its commission,” the SC press release said.

The magistrates, thus, recommended to the President, through the Department of Justice, to study and consider the “mitigation of the penalty imposed” against persons accused of the crime.

It was gathered that the United States, where many Philippine laws are patterned, penalizes as a felony lewd or lascivious acts committed against a child under 14 years old with imprisonment of three, six or eight years.

In Australia, acts of sexual indecency may put a person in jail up to seven years.

In the SC decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio T. Kho, Jr., the Second Division found the accused guilty of Lascivious Conduct under Article III, Section 5(b) of Republic Act No. (RA) 7610, or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.

In affirming the conviction of the accused, the magistrates said they found the T testimony of the 16-year-old victim “to be clear, candid, and categorical when she relayed that the accused lifted her skirt and touched her buttocks, which constitute overt acts of the accused tantamount to lascivious conduct.”

Under the law, lascivious conduct is defined in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 7610 as “the intentional touching, either directly or through clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks, or the introduction of any object into the genitalia, anus or mouth, of any person, whether of the same or opposite sex, with intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person, bestiality, masturbation, lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a person.”

Aside from the long prison term, the accused was also ordered to pay the private complainant PHP50,000.00 as civil indemnity, PHP50,000.00 as moral damages, and PHP50,000.00 as exemplary damages, to earn legal interest at the rate of 6% per annum from the date of finality of the Decision until full payment.