Republic of the Philippines
SUPREME COURT
Manila
EN BANC
G.R. No. L-34320 August 28, 1931
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, plaintiff-appellee,
vs.
RAMON BUMANGLAG, ET AL., defendants-appellants.
B. Pobre for appellants.
Attorney-General Jaranilla for appellee.
STREET, J.:
This appeal has been brought to reverse a judgment of the Court of First Instance of the Province of Cagayan, finding the appellants, Ramon, Mariano, and Victoriano, of the surname Bumanglag, and Fausto Siazon, guilty of the offense of murder, and sentencing them to undergo life imprisonment (cadena perpetua), with the accessories prescribed by law, requiring them jointly and severally to indemnify the family of the deceased (Emilio Almazan) in the amount of P1,000, and requiring them to pay the costs of prosecution. The appellant Ramon Bumanglag, indifferently referred to as Santiago Bumanglag in the transcript, has died since this cause was submitted upon appeal, as appears in a certificate from the Bureau of Prisons, and nothing remains to be done by us in his case except to declare the prosecution abated.
As regards the other three appellants, the facts are briefly these:
The three brothers in this case named Bumanglag and their brother-in-law, Fausto Siazon, are part of a numerous connection, residents of the barrio Cumao, in the municipality of Gattaran, Province of Cagayan. Prior to September, 1929, the entire lot had become incensed at their neighbor Emilio Almazan, by reason of the fact that he had been chiefly concerned in prosecuting Mariano Bumanglag for various offenses. As a result of the expenses incurred in defending himself successfully or unsuccessfully in these cases Mariano had become reduced to poverty. The ill will engendered in him on account of said proceedings was shared by his kinsmen; and a conspiracy was formed among them for the destruction of Emilio. This conspiracy took definite shape at a meeting held on the night of September 1 or 2, 1929, in the house of Elpidio Bumanglag, attended by numerous persons of the Bumanglag connection. Upon this occasion the aged Lorenzo Gamat gave Mariano P200 to pay the attorneys who had defended him in the previous litigation, and further proposed that a fund should be raised to bear the future expenses incident to the killing of Emilio Almazan according to the plan then formed. The incidents of this meeting were revealed by the witness Pascual Castro, who was himself present upon the occasion mentioned; and although the testimony of this witness is uncorroborated it supplies what we consider to be the reasonable explanation of the murder which followed on the night of September 3, 1929.
Emilio Almazan, the victim of this conspiracy, was a prosperous farmer and dealer in raw tobacco who, in the course of fifteen years, had accumulated considerable property in the fertile barrio where he was living. On the night referred to his wife, Gertrudis Singson, was absent with her children from home, and Emilio Almazan slept alone in the bed chamber in his house. In the adjoining hall, however, two persons were sleeping on their petates, one an elderly woman named Tomasa Pinson, the other a servant boy named Guillermo Martinez, of the age of 11 or 12 years. This hall was separated from the room where Emilio was sleeping by a light partition with an open door. There was a dim light near Emilio's bed and he was not protected by a mosquito net, with a result that the place where the sleeper lay was visible to the woman in the adjacent hall, when she availed herself of a convenient crevice in the partition wall, and to the boy, who was so placed that he could see Emilio's bed through the open door.
Some time during the aforesaid night the woman and the boy were aroused by a noise caused by the opening of the kitchen door. Casting their eyes in that direction, they saw four individuals, the appellants in this case, enter the room and proceed to the place where Emilio Almazan was sleeping. The two observers were at once impressed with the thought that the four intruders were bent on mischief, and they therefore preserved absolute quiet, fixing their attention upon the scene that was being transacted before them. Arriving at the bedside Mariano placed himself astride of the lower body of the sleeper and, with his two hands, pressed upon his stomach. At the same time Ramon planted himself on the breast of Emilio and seized his hands, holding them firmly in an extended position. Victoriano meanwhile had planted himself at the head of the bed, using one hand to cover the mouth and the other to close the nostrils of the victim. The part assumed by Fausto Siazon was to place himself on the lower extremity of Emilio, holding his feet firmly together. Emilio of course attempted at once to free himself from constraint, and his body was seen to move convulsively while the bed creaked under the pressure. In a few moments a quiet resulted which indicated that he had succumbed. When convinced that life had departed, the murderers relaxed their hold, arranged the corpse in position, and placed a folded quilt over the body. They then departed through the same door by which they had entered. Terrorized with fear, Tomasa Pinson and Guillermo Martinez remained until morning upon the floor. Tomasa then arose and, directing herself to the bed where the body of Almazan was lying, she ascertained that the man was dead. She at once reported this fact to two servants who were sleeping in a bodega on the premises, and afterwards went out to call in the neighbors. While on this errand, Tomasa encountered Mariano Bumanglag, who inquired why she looked so preoccupied. She answered that it was because they (meaning Mariano and his companions) had killed Emilio Almazan. Mariano replied that, if he heard anything of that again from her, she would be killed also. Actuated by fear Tomasa and Guillermo did not at once communicate to anybody the acts to which they were eyewitnesses on the night of the murder, but before long, as a result of an examination which was set afoot by the widow of the deceased, the full details of the occurrence were revealed.
Victoriano Bumanglag was the last of the four to be taken, and he made a confession under oath (Exhibit A), in which he related the manner in which he and his three companions had accomplished the death of Emilio Almazan. Fausto Siazon also confessed and his confession was reduced to writing, but he refused to sign the same, except upon condition that he should be used as a witness against his companions in the crime. The officials conducting the investigation were of the opinion, however, that they had sufficient proof without the necessity of using Siazon as a witness, and no indulgence was shown to him. Mariano and Ramon, the latter now deceased, did not confess, but the case against Mariano is, in our opinion, fully made out by the testimony of Tomasa Pinson and the boy Guillermo Martinez. In connection with the testimony of these two witnesses, we note that Guillermo Martinez was able to identify only three of the accused by their facial features. The features of the fourth individual he was unable to see well, for the reason that his back was turned, but he recognized the figure and identified this individual at the hearing as Victoriano Bumanglag. Tomasa Pinson identified the four in the same manner.
The accused introduced testimony tending to show that on the night when Emilio Almazan was killed, they were in other parts. We consider this proof of alibi on the part of the accused unworthy of credit, and the trial court committed no error in ignoring it.
The offense committed was murder, very clearly qualified by the element of alevosia. The aggravating circumstance of nocturnity is absorbed in the qualifying circumstance of alevosia (U.S. vs. Salgado, 11 Phil., 56). The same is true of the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superiority (Sentence of Supreme Court of Spain, September 14, 1871). The aggravating circumstance of evident premeditation is indicated in the testimony of the single witness who gave an account of the meeting in the house of Elpidio Bumanglag at which the death of Emilio Almazan was decided upon. But this witness was evidently a party in the conspiracy, and his testimony should not be accepted without corroboration, of which there is none; for it is a well recognized rule that the testimony of one of several conspirators should not be accepted, as against his fellows, without some corroboration. This is especially applicable in a situation where the facts testified to would, if fully accepted, necessarily result in the imposition of the death penalty.
The aggravating circumstance that the offense was committed in the dwelling of the deceased was also present, but this may be considered arrested by the mitigating circumstance mentioned in article 11 of the Penal Code, the benefit of which the court concedes to the appellants. It results that the proper penalty is that which was imposed by the trial court, namely, life imprisonment (cadena perpetua) under article 403 of the Penal Code.
The judgment appealed from will be affirmed with respect to the three appellants, Mariano Bumanglag, Victoriano Bumanglag, and Fausto Siazon, with proportional costs of this instance and one-fourth the costs of first instance against each. As to Ramon Bumanglag the prosecution is declared to have abated, without costs. So ordered.
Avanceņa, C.J., Johnson, Malcolm, Villamor, Romualdez, Villa-Real, and Imperial, JJ., concur.
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