Anti-Rape Law of 1997⁠ classified rape as a crime against persons⁠ and amended the Revised Penal Code to include Article 266-A on rape through sexual assault

G.R. No. 211002, January 21, 2015, RICHARD RICALDE, PETITIONER, VS. PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, RESPONDENT.

“x x x.

The Anti-Rape Law of 1997^⁠1  classified rape as a crime against persons^⁠2  and amended the Revised Penal Code to include Article 266-A on rape through sexual assault:

Article 266–A. Rape; When and How Committed.—Rape is Committed—

1) By a man who shall have carnal knowledge of a woman under any of the following circumstances:

a) Through force, threat, or intimidation;

b) When the offended party is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious;

c) By means of fraudulent machination or grave abuse of authority; and

d) When the offended party is under twelve (12) years of age or is demented, even though none of the circumstances mentioned above be present;

2) By any person who, under any of the circumstances mentioned in paragraph 1 hereof, shall commit an act of sexual assault by inserting his penis into another person’s mouth or anal orifice, or any instrument or object, into the genital or anal orifice of another person. (Emphasis supplied)

Rape under the second paragraph of Article 266-A is also known as “instrument or object rape,”^⁠3 “gender-free rape,”^⁠4  or “homosexual rape.”^⁠5   The gravamen of rape through sexual assault is “the insertion of the penis into another person’s mouth or anal orifice, or any instrument or object, into another person’s genital or anal orifice.”⁶ 

X x x.”