Republic of the Philippines
SUPREME COURT
Manila
EN BANC
G.R. No. 12607 September 27, 1917
THE UNITED STATES, plaintiff-appellee,
vs.
RUFINO PARRO, defendant-appellant.
Jose A. Clarin for appellant.
Acting Attorney-General Paredes for appellee.
MALCOLM, J.:
The defendant and appellant had had trouble with his brother Silverio Parro regarding family property by reason of which personal enmity had been engendered between them. With this as the motive, the defendant procured an ignorant man by the name of Gabino Calindatas to kill the brother and grandniece of the defendant for a reward of P60 and a promise to maintain the family of Calindatas could not be prosecuted after the expiration of three years. Calindatas, following the instructions of the defendant, on the night of April 16, 1913, waylaid the brother Silverio Parro and the small girl Paciencia Sendencia in an uninhabited place on the seashore and killed them with a dagger. Calindatas then reported to the defendant that his orders had been executed, whereupon the defendant sent men to bury the bodies in the sea.
These facts constitute murder by inducement for a price and make the defendant guilty as principal in the commission of the crime. (Art. 13, No. 2, Penal Code, and U. S. vs. Gamao [1912], 23 Phil., 81 — in connection with art. 403, No. 2, Penal Code and U. S. vs. Indanan ([1913], 24 Phil., 203. See also as corrobative authority U. S vs. Valdez [1915], 30 Phil., 293, affirmed by the United States Supreme Court.) There also concur the aggravating circumstances of evident premeditation, relationship, and commission in the night time and in an uninhabited place (and possibly others), offset by no mitigating circumstance. The trial court sentenced the defendant and appellant to cadena perpetua, to indemnify the heirs of the deceased Silverio Parro and Paciencia Sendencia each in the among of P500, and to pay the costs. Agreeable to the recommendation of the Attorney-General and following the mandatory precepts of the law, we are forced to eliminate from this judgment so much as provided for life imprisonment and in lieu thereof to sentence the defendant and appellant Rufino Parro to be hanged until dead in accordance with law, with the costs of this instance. So ordered.
Arellano, C.J., Carson, Araullo and Street, JJ., concur.
The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation
