G.R. No. 19192. February 28, 1923

This appeal has been brought to reverse a judgment of the Court of First
Instance of the Province of Cagayan, finding the appellant, Miguel G.
Concepcion, guilty of the offense of estafa by means of falsification of
mercantile documents, and sentencing him to undergo imprisonment for five years,
four months and twenty days, prision correccional, with the accessories
prescribed by law; to pay a fine of P1,500; to indemnify the branch of the
Philippine National Bank in Aparri in the sum of P55,000, with subsidiary
imprisonment (not to exceed one year) in case of insolvency; and to pay the
one-fourth part of the costs of prosecution.

In the information three other persons, to wit, Teodorico Angeles, Abelardo
Crisologo, and Ricardo Paredes, were named as codefendants with this accused;
but a severance was had, and the trial of the present appellant occurred at a
different time than that of his coaccused, and indeed before a different judge.
The present opinion will therefore be confined to the appeal of this appellant,
Miguel G. Concepcion, alone.

Upon the date of the events which gave rise to this prosecution Teodorico
Angeles was manager of a branch of the Philippine National Bank at Aparri, in
the Province of Cagayan. At the same time Miguel Concepcion, a resident of the
Province of Cagayan and representative of said province in the Philippine
Assembly, was manager of a limited partnership engaged in the business of buying
and selling tobacco in the Cagayan Valley, known as “Puno y Concepcion.” The
mercantile operations of this firm were for a time carried on upon an extensive
scale, and Miguel Concepcion was naturally therefore frequently brought into
contact with Teodorico Angeles as manager of the Aparri branch of the Philippine
National Bank. Morever, it appears that Miguel Concepcion is a son of Venancio
Concepcion at that time president of the Philippine National Bank at Manila; and
by reason of both his social and business relations Miguel Concepcion evidently
acquired an undue influence over Teodorico Angeles, with the result that the
latter in a great measure surrendered his discretion as manager of the bank to
the will of the former.

Now, it appears that in the month of October, 1919, Miguel Concepcion had
need of funds, which could only be had from the Philippine National Bank; and as
he apparently had no bankable security available, recourse was had to the
expedient of getting the money upon loans from the bank upon fictitious
warehouse receipts (quedans), with the knowledge and connivance of
Teodorico Angeles.

The story of the manner in which the loans in question were obtained is told
with apparent candor by Abelardo Crisologo and Ricardo Paredes, who are charged
in the information as joint principals in the offense of estafa by means
of falsification of mercantile documents but who, as we believe, were rather
victims of the artifices of their coaccused than designing participants in
crime.

It appears, then, that Abelardo Crisologo had long been an intimate friend of
Miguel G. Concepcion; and, as Crisologo lived in Tuguegarao, it had been the
custom of Concepcion on visits to that place in the past to stay in Crisologo’s
hospitable home. Paredes was the father-in-law of Crisologo and at the same time
an employee of the firm of “Puno y Concepcion,” though prior to September, 1919,
he had been employed by the branch of the Philippine National Bank in Aparri as
an inspector.

In the month of October of 1919, Teodorico Angeles and Miguel G. Concepcion
were in Tuguegarao, and they were invited to dine at the house of Crisologo,
Paredes being also present. After the meal was over, and the appropriate time
had arrived for the exchange of confidences, the subject of the tobacco trade
was broached, and Miguel G. Concepcion, directing himself to Angeles, said:
“Manager, I have three thousand quintals of tobacco in the pueblos of
Enrile, Peñablanca, and Baggao, and I should like to pledge them to the bank but
I should not like for my name to appear on the documents. I mean that I should
not like to make the pledge myself.” To this Teodorico Angeles replied: “Whose
name then would you like to have appear?” Thereupon Concepcion indicated
Crisologo as a person who would perhaps be obliging enough to figure as borrower
in the loan. To this Crisologo at first hesitated to give his assent, but the
matter was managed with such diplomatic skill by the two principal interlocutors
that Crisologo yielded, not before Concepcion, however, had pointed out that in
making the pledge Crisologo would not have to appear as owner of the tobacco but
merely as depositary. In addition to this Angeles gave Crisologo to understand
that the proposed participation of the latter in the transaction was all a
matter of the merest form. It may be stated also that the explanation given to
Crisologo by Concepcion for the necessity of the intervention of some one else
than himself was, .in effect, that Concepcion wanted to use the money for the
purchase of tobacco in competition with the firm of “Puno y Concepcion,” of
which Concepcion was manager, and he thought it would look ugly for his name to
appear in connection with the loan.

The way having been thus paved for the putting through of the deal, by which
the bank would lend the sum of P55,000 upon the security of warehouse receipts
for 3,000 quintals of tobacco, the three principals met again the next day in
the house where Concepcion was then staying in Tuguegarao; and it was determined
that a loan of P35,000 should forthwith be made on the purported security of a
quedan to be signed by Crisologo for 2,000 quintals of tobacco, leaving a loan
of P20,000 to be effected later upon the security of another quedan for the
remaining thousand quintals of tobacco.

In this interview Angeles assured Crisologo that he (Angeles) had personally
inspected the warehouse where that part of the tobacco supposed to be then in
Tuguegarao was deposited and found it to be there as Concepcion had claimed.
Upon this Crisologo indicated his readiness to proceed, and the necessary
documents were accordingly prepared. These consisted, first, of four promissory
notes, amounting altogether to the sum of P35,000, signed by Abelardo Crisologo,
payable to the Philippine National Bank and purporting to be secured by the
deposit of a quedan for 2,000 quintals of tobacco. Accompanying these notes was
the warehouse receipt for said tobacco, in the usual commercial form, signed by
Crisologo and purporting to show that 2,000 quintals of tobacco had been
deposited in his bodegas. This quedan was reduced to typewritten form by
Concepcion himself just before the document was signed by Crisologo, its
contents being dictated by Teodorico Angeles.

On the next day, which was October 24, 1919, in Aparri, Angeles discounted
the four notes and placed the proceeds nominally to the credit of an individual
account then opened in the name of Abelardo Crisologo. Of the amount thus placed
to the credit of Crisologo, the sum of P30,000 was forthwith remitted to
Concepcion in Tuguegarao by telegraph through the provincial treasurer and was
by the latter paid to Concepcion in due course. The amount of P5,000 remaining
to Crisologo’s credit was used either to pay the charges incidental to the
making of the loan or to defray interest upon the loan.

Three or four weeks later the remaining portion of the sum of P55,000,
originally agreed upon as the total amount of the loan, was advanced by the bank
upon two promissory notes of P10,000 each, signed by Crisologo, and purporting
to be secured by a quedan for the other thousand quintals of tobacco, supposedly
in Baggao, likewise signed by Crisologo.

The making of this second loan brings Ricardo Paredes into contact with the
criminal transaction, and it is necessary here to explain his relation to the
affair. In this connection it appears that at about this time the firm of “Puno
y Concepcion,” for which Paredes was acting as buyer, had need of money, and of
this fact Paredes had duly informed Concepcion. The latter therefore instructed
Angeles to pay Paredes the proceeds of the second loan; and accordingly when
Angeles discounted the two notes of Abelardo Crisologo for P20,000, on November
19, 1919, he delivered to Paredes the sum of P500 in currency and a draft for
P18,000, making P18,500 in all, which was charged to Crisologo’s account. The
remainder of the proceeds of the notes was consumed in the payment of charges
incidental to the loan and in the payment of interest. From this it will be
seen, and it is an undeniable fact, that although Crisologo signed the notes and
quedans, as above stated, he in no wise profited by the transaction and never so
much as saw the gleam of a single copper proceeding from the loan.

In concluding our sketch of the facts connected with the making of these two
loans, we may state that at the time the quedans referred to were signed and
delivered to the bank neither Crisologo nor Concepcion possessed the tobacco
which was purported to be on deposit with Abelardo Crisologo; and, although the
evidence on this point is purely circumstantial, we feel certain that Angeles
knew that the tobacco was non-existent. In favor of Crisologo is the
circumstance that Angeles assured him that Concepcion had the tobacco and that
the signing of the documents by Crisologo was a matter of pure form.

The sequel to the transactions above narrated may be told in a few words. The
notes, as might have been anticipated, have not been paid by Abelardo Crisologo;
the tobacco has been found to be non-existent, as Angeles and Concepcion all
along knew; Concepcion denies all responsibility for the transaction, as if he
were a total stranger thereto; and since December 23, 1921, Angeles occupies the
grave of a suicide.

In our opinion the trial judge committed no error in finding the appellant,
Miguel G. Concepcion, guilty of the complex offense of estafa by means of
the falsification of mercantile documents. The estafa here involved
consists in the fact that Teodorico Angeles, as manager of the Aparri branch of
the Philippine National Bank, and as such having charge of the funds of said
institution, converted, misappropriated, and misapplied the sum of about P55,000
of the bank’s money, upon security that was known to him to be wholly
fictitious, for the benefit of the appellant Concepcion and to the prejudice of
the bank, all in contravention of subsection 5 of article 535 of the Penal Code.
To the accomplishment of this estafa the falsification of two warehouse
receipts was a necessary prerequisite; and the appellant Concepcion participated
in the falsification of those documents not only as author by induction as to
both, but in the fact that he was the mechanical author of at least the first,
having himself reduced the document to proper form upon his own typewriting
machine at the dictation of Teodorico Angeles.

This appellant is therefore subject to punishment under article 301 of the
Penal Code, as amended, in relation with article 89 of the same Code. The trial
judge was therefore not in error in sentencing him to imprisonment for a period
within the limits of maximum degree of prision correccional; but a
precise estimate of the penalty to be imposed shows that the period fixed by his
Honor falls short of the true legal requirement by one day.

In order that the point may not be supposed to have passed unperceived we
will say that the information charges an estafa founded upon deceit, it
being alleged that the money of which the bank was defrauded was obtained by
means of the false representation on the part of the accused Abelardo Crisologo
that he was the owner of the tobacco covered by the quedans to which reference
has been made, a form of estafa defined in subsection 1 of article 535 of
the Penal Code. However, in view of the fact that the responsible manager of the
bank, who let the money out, knew that the tobacco was non-existent, the
estafa committed cannot be considered to have been of the precise form
alleged; and the offense is more properly to be considered as falling under
subsection 5 of the same article, that is, as consisting of fraudulent
misapplication of the funds of the bank by its manager. Moreover, we note that
the facts set forth in the information are sufficient to sustain the charge in
this aspect; and we have no hesitancy in holding, in conformity with the analogy
of numerous precedents, that where the facts are sufficiently set forth in the
information, a conviction can be had under subsection 5 of article 535, although
the information expressly charges only an infraction of subsection 1.

In the light of the foregoing discussion it becomes necessary to modify the
period of imprisonment imposed by the trial judge by adding one day thereto,
thus placing the penalty within the maximum of the maximum degree of prision
correccional; and it being understood that the appealed decision is thus
modified, the judgment is affirmed, with costs. So ordered.

Araullo, C.J.,
Malcolm, Avanceña, Villamor, Ostrand, Johns, and Romualdez, JJ.,
concur.