Ability to dispose NOT element of asportation in robbery or theft

The element of taking or asportation was completed when appellant violently got hold of the bag however momentarily. In robbery, the element of asportation which requires the unlawful taking of personal property from the possession of its owner, without his privity and consent and without animus revertendi is present once the property is in fact taken from the owner, even for just an instant. The subsequent disposition of the property taken, or the failure to dispose of the same, is of no moment in so far as the characterization of the offense as robbery is concerned. [G.R. No. 118076. November 20, 1996]