G.R. No. 1758. March 13, 1905

The defendant here was charged with the crime of assassination, was
tried by the Court of First Instance of the Province of Batangas, and
sentenced to the penalty of death.

The complaint charged that on or about the hour of 8 o’clock p. m.,
on the 12th day of September, 1903, in the pueblo of Lipa, of the
Province of Batangas, the accused, Macario Catigbac, after lying in
wait for Ireneo Abaca, called to the latter on the pretext of desiring
to speak to him, and later inflicted certain wounds with a poniard,
causing the said Ireneo Abaca certain mortal wounds from the effect of
which the said Ireneo Abaca died at about 2.30 o’clock a. m. of the
following day.

The evidence shows that the deceased owed the defendant a certain
sum of money; that the accused called at the house of the deceased on
the afternoon of the 12th day of said month for the purpose of
collecting said sum of money; that the deceased had promised to pay to
the accused the said debt on said day; that at the time the accused
called at the home of the deceased the latter was absent; that the
accused became somewhat displeased because the deceased had not paid
the debt in accordance with his promise, as the accused alleged; that
later, on the same day, the accused attempted to find the deceased
again for the purpose of collecting the said debt; that after the
accused had looked for the deceased for some time they met in one of
the streets of said Lipa; that a quarrel ensued; that after quarreling
some time with reference to the alleged debt they engaged in a fight;
that during the fight the accused wounded the deceased, from the
effects of which wound deceased died after some six or seven hours. The
evidence further shows that immediately after the fight between the
accused and the deceased the accused presented himself before the
governor of the province, and also presented to the governor the
poniard which he used in wounding the said deceased.

An examination of the evidence adduced during the trial of said
cause in the opinion of this court fails to disclose that the defendant
committed the said offense with premeditation; neither does the
evidence show that his acts were committed with alevosia—that
the accused had done any act which in any way showed that he had
inflicted the wounds by treachery. The crime therefore can not be
qualified as assassination.

The evidence does show, however, that the defendant did kill Ireneo
Abaca without the attendance of any of the extenuating or aggravating
circumstances provided for in the Penal Code. The crime should
therefore be qualified as the crime of homicide and the defendant
should be punished under article 404 of the Penal Code. The sentence
imposed by the Court of First Instance is therefore reversed, and the
defendant is hereby sentenced to be imprisoned for the period of
seventeen years and four months of reclusion temporal and to pay the costs of both instances. So ordered..

Arellano, C. J. Torres, Mapa, and Carson, JJ., concur.