Republic of the Philippines
SUPREME COURT
Manila
EN BANC
G.R. No. L-6063 April 26, 1954
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee,
vs.
LEON AQUINO, defendant-appellant.
Dominador T. Tugade for appellant.
Office of the Solicitor General Juan R. Liwag and Solicitor Felix V. Makasiar for appellee.
REYES, J.:
The accused Leon Aquino was charged in the Court of First Instance of Pangasinan with malversation of public funds for having on or about July 16, 1951, misappropriated public funds amounting to P20,944.27 entrusted to his case in his capacity as municipal treasurer and postmaster of Mabini, Pangasinan, and "ex-officio in-charge of the properties and funds of the National Rice and Corn Corporation (NARIC)." Pleading guilty to the charge, the accused was, in accordance with article 217, paragraph 4, of the Revised Penal Code and the Indeterminate Sentence Law, sentenced as follows:
(a) In accordance with the Indeterminate Sentence Law and article 217, paragraph 4 of the Revised Penal Code, and taking into account his plea of guilty, to suffer a penalty of Eight years and one day of "prision mayor" as a minimum, and twelve years and one day of "reclusion temporal" as a maximum;
(b) To suffer the penalty of perpetual special disqualification;
(c) To pay a fine of P10,472.13, without subsidiary imprisonment because of the principal penalty imposed;
(d) To indemnify the National Rice and Corn Corporation in the amount of P12,656.83;
(e) To indemnify the Government of the Republic of the Philippines in the amount of P2,910.44;
(f) To indemnify the Bureau of Posts or the Government of the Republic of the Philippines in the further amount of P5,377;
(g) To pay the costs of this case.
From this sentence the accused has appealed, and his attorney in this instance contends that the lower court should have applied paragraph 3 instead of paragraph 4 of the article mentioned. In support of this contention attention is invited to the fact disclosed in the information that P12,656.83 of the funds malversed belonged to the NARIC, and, on the theory that NARIC funds are not public funds because the NARIC is a corporation separate and distinct from the Government, counsel argues that with respect to that sum the accused cannot be held guilty of malversation of public funds. With that sum excluded, the amount of public funds malversed, so counsel contends, would only be P8,287.44 and would come under paragraph 3 of the article in question, which provides for a penalty higher than the prescribed in paragraph 4.
The contention is without merit. Even supposing that funds belonging to the NARIC are not public funds, they become impressed with that character when they are entrusted to a public officer for his official custody (People vs. De la Serna, 40 Off. Gaz. [Supp. 12] 159). Thus this Court has held that Red Cross, Anti-Tuberculosis, and Boy Scouts funds delivered to an assistant cashier of a provincial treasurer for his custody acquire the attributes of public funds (People vs. Velasquez, 72 Phil., 98).
We find the sentence appealed from in accordance with law. We, therefore, confirm it with costs against the appellant.
Paras, C.J., Pablo, Bengzon, Jugo, Bautista Angelo, Labrador, and Concepcion, JJ., concur.
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