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IN BANC

[GR No. L - 2171 . March 4, 1950.]

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES , plaintiff and


appellee , against IDE LAGON RAMOS , accused and appellant .

Tobias Fornier on behalf of the appellant.


The Assistant Attorney General Mr. Guillermo E. Torres and the
Procurator Mr. Manuel Tomacruz on behalf of the Government.

SYLLABUS

1. CRIMINAL LAW; ROBBERY WITH


HOMICIDE; TESTS; PERSONAL IDENTITY OF THE DEFENDANT. - The
identification of the person of the accused - is what matters and not his name
- is proven of finished one, and his name, either ILR or AL, jr., Which can be
changed as he was doing, does not detract from his personal identity .
2. ID .; ID; ID; GOOD CONDUCT; UNIVERSITY DIPLOMA AND
WEALTH OF THE ACCUSED. - The university diploma and wealth are not
patent for good behavior; there are educated and rich who are a moral
bankruptcy and there are poor and illiterate who are models of honesty.
3. ID. ID; ID; SECURED AS A DEFENSE. - Based on the evidence
proven in this case, the defense of the alibi by the defendant can not prevail
against the positive, clear and convincing statement of the owner of the house
in front of which the tragic event occurred and that of the police C.

DECISION

PABLO , J :
p

By order of the Municipal Mayor of the municipality of Pandan, Antique,


at about four o'clock on the afternoon of October 2, 1946, a patrol composed
of Corporal Miguel Baron and three municipal policemen Flaviano Ambay,
Valentin Condes and Epimaco Artiga, together with the Sergeant Gerardo
Maravilles and two soldiers of the military police, left the municipal house to
complete the arrest warrant issued against Crispulo Saracaulao and Pedro
Rufon and to check the notice of the Lieutenant of the neighborhood of
Libertad that unknown and armed people were causing terror in his
neighborhood. The patrol did not arrive to that place because it stopped in the
Bolanao neighborhood to rest and at the same time wait for the two soldiers of
the military police who were left behind. As they did not arrive, the police
Valentin Condes was sent to look for them; but when he arrived near the
house of Nepomuceno Napat, three men caught him. With his efforts he
managed to get rid of them and took refuge in the house, finding the owner
and four armed persons who were the accused and two companions
withcarbine and the room that was on the balcony with sub-
machine gun . After quenching his thirst by drinking a glass of water, and not
inspiring confidence the suspicious taste of the four armed men who spoke in
low voices, the police Countess begged Nepomuceno Napat to lead him to
Tonio's house. That one conformed. Just down the stairs, the defendant and
his three companions followed in pursuit, and when arriving at the base of the
house the defendant gave a recoil to the police Counts and immediately
Billenas gave him another. The defendant snatched thethompson of Counts,
ordering this to go up to the house. He complied with the order, and as soon
as he reached the third step, the defendant discharged a barrage of shots at
the policeman Epimaco Artiga, who was then arriving. Artiga fell to the ground
and Billenas seized his rifle. Immediately the defendant and his three
companions left with the booty. The bullets hit Epimaco Artiga's chest, two on
the left side and two on the right, and they died immediately.Valentin Condes,
after the departure of the accused and his companions and recovered from
the fright, returned to the municipal house of Pandan to report the event. The
next day, the body of Epimaco Artiga was taken to the village.
The defendant and his three companions went up to the home of
Nepomuceno Napat in the Bolanao neighborhood, Pandan, at around nine at
night making the owner believe that they were members of the military police,
and in their conversations they informed the owner that the name Defendant
is Ide Lagon Ramos and his three companions, Enrique Billenas, Dominador
Dionela and Exequiel Sangeles. Accessing the request of these, the owner of
the house sent his boy to prepare dinner; but it was not long before the police
arrived Valentin Condes, who, as has already been said, asked Nepomuceno
Napat to accompany him to Tonio's house. Nepomuceno and the police
Condes are the witnesses of the accusation that declared the reported facts.
On October 30, 1946, the complaint was filed against the four armed
men, accusing them of the crime of robbery with homicide; three have not yet
been arrested, and the defendant-appellant Ide Lagon Ramos was found in
the Iloilo provincial jail suffering a sentence for illegal possession of
firearms. The provincial command of Iloilo to be able to fulfill the two orders of
arrest against the accused, through the provincial command of Antique in its
endorsement of August 11, 1947, asked when the defendant Ide Lagon
Ramos should appear before the Magistrate's Court of Pandan because the
same defendant had to appear for another cause in the Hinigaran Magistrate's
Court, Negros Occidental.
On September 1, 1947, the accused filed a brief renouncing the
preliminary investigation. Given the case, the defendant was convicted by the
Court of First Instance of Antique to the penalty of life imprisonment, to
compensate the heirs of Epimaco Artiga in the sum of P2,000 with the
accessory and the costs.
Against the sentence, the defendant appeals, and contends that he has
not been properly identified; that is not called Ide Lagon Ramos but Aurelio
Lagon, Jr. This defense is inconsistent with his writing (page 16 of the file)
renouncing the preliminary investigation in which he used the name Ide Lagon
Ramos and the signature shown demonstrates the spontaneity and ease of
the strokes, which reveal that it is his signature, used frequently. In his four
subsequent writings I try to sign differently, making the pen hesitate so that
the strokes were not spontaneous. All these four signatures on pages 30, 37,
46 and 49 of the file, denounce the purpose that incubated in his mind the
defendant to use the defense that is not called Ide Lagon Ramos but Aurelio
Lagon, Jr .; but unfortunately he did not realize that the signatures used are
not "Aurelio Lagon, Jr." but "Eddie Lagon Ramos": two are with vertical letters
and the other two with letters leaning to the right. Even supposing that it is not
called Ide Lagon Ramos but Aurelio Lagon, Jr., that does not matter because
he made Nepomuceno Napat believe, the owner of the house in which he
ordered to prepare dinner, that's what it was called; in the provincial prison of
Iloilo he was known by such name; he was arrested under that same name; in
his motion renouncing the preliminary investigation was given by Idy Lagon
Ramos, and being already in the Court of Peace of Pandan, Antique, the
witnesses Nepomuceno Napat and police Valentin Condes assured that the
defendant, under the name of Ide Lagon Ramos, He was the one who kicked
the police Condes and had snatched his rifle, and was the one who had fired
shots at police Artiga, killing him on the spot. The identification of the person
of the accused - is what matters and not his name - is proven in a finished
way, and his name, whether Ide Lagon Ramos or Aurelio Lagon, Jr., which
can be changed as he was doing, does not detract your personal identity
The defense contends that the defendant is from Hinigaran, Negros
Occidental; that his parents own more than 60 hectares of land; and that he is
a graduate of "Associate in Arts" at the University of Silliman. There is no
reason - the defense argues - for him, under such circumstances, to go to
Antique and engage in gangsterism . The university diploma and wealth are
not patent for good behavior: there are educated and rich who are a moral
bankruptcy and there are poor and illiterate who are models of honesty.
The alibi defense that the defendant had never left Western Negros
after the war and that only for the first time went to Antique when he was
taken by the military police from the jail of Iloilo, can not prevail against the
positive, clear and convincing statement of the owner of the house in front of
which the tragic event occurred and that of the police Condes. (People
against Balneg and another, 45 Off Gaz., 2825, 1 Town against Imson and
another, 45 Off Gaz., 9th Supp., 3838.) 2
The defense alleges that the confession of the three-page defendant
should not merit any credit because it has been obtained by the military police
under abuse. The alleged maltreatment has been denied, and even
discarding this confession, the evidence in cars prove beyond doubt the guilt
of the accused.
The defense argues that the defendant can not be convicted of the
complex crime of robbery with homicide citing the US case against
Lahoylahoy (38 Jur. Fil., 351), which is inapplicable because in the present
case it was proven, as I argue in the complaint, that the two rifles that were
under the custody of Valentin Condes and Epimaco Artiga, as municipal
police officers, were taken by the accused and his colleague Billenas, to the
detriment of the Government.The seizure of the two rifles by means of the
force already described is robbery. And as on the occasion of the robbery I kill
Artiga, the defendant committed the complex crime of robbery with homicide,
in violation of Article 294, first paragraph, of the Revised Penal Code.
The sentence imposed on the defendant with costs is confirmed.
(El Pueblo de Filipinas v. Ramos, G.R. No. L-2171, [March 4, 1950], 85 PHIL
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683-688)

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