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 |||
People of The Philippines, Appellee, vs. Noel Enojas Y Hingpit, Arnold Gomez Y Fabregas, Fernando Santos Y Delantar and Roger JALANDONI y ARI, Appellants