(a) an accusation of rape can be made with facility and while the accusation is difficult to

prove, it is even more difficult for the person accused, though innocent, to disprove the
charge; (b) considering that, in the nature of things, only two (2) persons are usually involved
in the crime of rape, the testimony of the complainant should be scrutinized with great
caution; and (c) the evidence for the prosecution must stand or fall on its own merit, and
cannot be allowed to draw strength from the weakness of the evidence for the defense.
(GR 115657)

V. The main defense proffered by appellant is that he and complainant were sweethearts. While the "sweetheart
theory" does not often gain favor with this Court, such is not always the case if the hard fact is that the accused
and the supposed victim are, in truth, intimately related except that, as is usual in most cases, either the
relationship is illicit or the victim's parents are against it. It is not improbable that in some instances, when the
relationship is uncovered, the alleged victim or her parents for that matter would rather take the risk of instituting
a criminal action in the hope that the court would take the cudgels for them than for the woman to admit to her
own acts of indiscretion. And this, as the records reveal, is precisely what happened to appellant.

(People vs Godoy)

Fourth, the failure of both Angeles de la Cruz and Perlita Candelario to immediately seek help does not
necessarily deviate from natural human conduct. Fear has its bizarre way of rendering people immobile even in
life-and-death situations. 38 Not every witness to a crime is expected to act reasonably and conformably under
normal circumstances. Indeed, there is no standard form of human behavior when one is confronted with a
strange, startling, or frightful experience.

(PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee,

vs.
ARNOLD REALIN, NELSON REALIN, and EDWIN REALIN, accused. )