MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court has ruled that a man who raped his 10-year-old adoptive niece cannot be meted a harsher penalty for qualified rape, citing that they were not legally considered relatives at the time the crime was committed in 2012.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Japar B. Dimaampao, the SC’s Third Division affirmed the conviction of the accused but reduced the charge to statutory rape, saying the qualifying circumstance of relationship under the Revised Penal Code did not apply.

The Court explained that while the adoptive mother’s brother forcibly had sex with the sleeping child in November 2012, the adoption laws in effect at the time did not legally recognize the accused as a relative of the victim within the context of qualifying the crime.

The Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals earlier found the accused guilty of qualified rape, taking into account the victim’s age and alleged relationship to the offender. However, the Supreme Court disagreed with the application of the qualifying circumstance of relationship.

Under Article 266-B of the Revised Penal Code, rape is considered qualified — and punishable by the maximum penalty — when committed against a person under 18 by a relative by blood or affinity within the third civil degree. But the Court clarified that the accused was not a relative by blood or affinity, as the law then did not extend kinship to adoptive relatives beyond the adoptive parents.

In 2022, the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act (RA No. 11642) expanded this definition to include adoptive relatives such as parents, siblings, and descendants. However, the SC ruled that applying this new law retroactively would violate the constitutional ban on ex post facto laws, which prohibit imposing a harsher penalty after the fact.

As a result, the SC convicted the accused of statutory rape, which applies when the victim is under 12 years old, regardless of the offender’s relationship to the child. He was sentenced to reclusion perpetua (up to 40 years) and ordered to pay P225,000 in damages.

In a concurring opinion, Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa stressed that under RA 11642, an adoptee “gains a family, not just a parent.” He acknowledged, however, that the law cannot be applied retroactively in this case.