G.R. No. 1289. January 03, 1905

On
November 10, 1902, certain individuals, namely, Eleno Bueno, Macario
Aquino, Arcadio Soriano, and Luis Bailen, residents of the town of
Santa, Ilocos Sur, went to Bangued, Province of Abra, for the purpose
of purchasing hogs. On the following day Arcadio and Luis went to the
town of Dolores, Eleno and Macario remaining in Bangued ; the latter
two also left on the 12th of the said month to return to their town, as
they said at the time. On the 18th of the same month of November the
said Luis and Arcadio returned to Bangued and, after being informed of
the departure of their companions, immediately left in search of them
accompanied by Alipio Bernal, the owner of the house where they had
been staying, who was acquainted with the roads, and upon their arrival
at the barrio of Pugaro they came upon a place where were signs of hogs
having been tied and also a cloth belt cut to pieces, and they noticed
a strong, fetid odor, and, suspecting that an accident might have
occurred to their said companions, they reported the case to the
municipal president, by whose order they returned to the place,
accompanied by the headman of the barrio and four members of police,
and in the place from which the fetid odor emanated they found human
remains, destroyed clothes, a pair of blood-stained linen drawers, and
a bamboo helmet, all of which garments, according to the said Soriano
and Bailen, belonged to their companions Eleno Bueno and Macario
Aquino, and as they did not also find the money which they had with
them for the purchase of hogs they concluded that the said Eleno and
Macario had been murdered.

In view of this on November 25 of
that year a complaint was filed by the provincial fiscal charging the
parties, Anastasio Bosito, Emiliano Berido, Lorenzo Berido, and the
so-called Peru Princena, with the crime of murder and robbery, in that
with bolos they slew the said Bueno and Aquino, the crime having been
committed on the road leading to the barrio of Pugaro of the township
of Bangued, and also for having feloniously seized and taken the money
and hogs of the deceased contrary to law.

The defendants,
when arraigned, pleaded not guilty, and the case being for trial
Lorenzo Berido was excluded there-from to be tried separately; Peru
Princena was acquitted during the trial (p.43); and Emiliano Berido was
acquitted on final judgment, the proceedings having been continued
against Anastasio Bosito only, who, on final judgment, was sentenced
(p. 70) to imprisonment at hard labor for twelve years and to pay the
costs, etc. From this judgment the defendant Bosito appealed.

The
facts proven by the testimony of the witnesses Arcadio Soriano and Luis
Bailen, who, in the presence of some police officers, identified the
clothes which were found together with the human remains in the place
called Pugaro, tend to show the existence of the crimes of murder and
robbery owing to the fact that neither the money carried by the victims
(about one hundred pesos, according to the said witnesses) nor the hogs
which the victims had purchased were found with the remains; and owing
also to the fact that since then the two men had disappeared and had
not returned to their residence; the conclusion drawn from the fact
that the clothes, belt, and bamboo helmet were found destroyed and one
of the garments stained with the blood of the deceased in the place
where their remains were found is that the killing was done for the
purpose of robbing them, and in the act of perpetrating this offense
against property, and for this reason, it is to be considered that the
two men who disappeared died violently and upon the occasion of the
robbery of which they were the victims and that the remains found with
the garments were their remains.

As to the participation of
the defendant Bosito in the commission of the crimes mentioned, the
case offers no evidence whatever that he (Bosito) took any part in it
or that he is responsible as one of the principals of said crimes of
murder and robbery.

In the conclusions stated in the
judgment appealed, from Anastasio Bosito is considered a simple
accessory after the fact in these crimes, which conclusion is accepted
by the Attorney-General.

The charge made against the accused
is based upon the fact that two small bags containing money were found
in possession of the wife of the accused, Marta Barbosa. One of the
bags was made of striped cloth, had fresh blood stains, which the wife
of the accused at once tried to blot-out after having endeavored to
prevent its examination, and thereupon dropped the other bag (the one
made of white cloth), which was identified by the witnesses Soriano and
Bailen as one of those belonging to the deceased Eleno Bueno.

The three witnesses, Juan Villamor, governor of Abra Province,
Inspector Frank Knoll, and the municipal president of Bangued, Juan
Ferraren, affirm that as a result of the search made by them in the
house of the accused they found the said bags in possession of his
wife, without the accused himself being able to explain either the
origin of the blood stains on one of the bags or the source from whence
came the bags and the money which they contained.

These
statements made by the officers who made the arrest tend to prove the
responsibility of the accused Anastasio Bosito, if not as the principal
at least as an accessory after the fact in the commission of the crime,
but they can not prevail against the evidence adduced in favor of the
innocence of the defendant, who was able to establish that on the
evening of November 12, the date on which the said crimes are supposed
to have been committed, he was in the house of Marcos Caballero with
two witnesses who accompanied him and remained in the same house; and
in another part of the evidence he proved by the testimony of his wife
and that of other witnesses, some of them not his relatives, that the
money contained in the bags found was the proceeds of tobacco and a hog
sold by them; and that if the stains of blood were really of the
deceased they should not be fresh, but totally dry at the time the bag
was found, owing to the number of days which had intervened since the
date of the attempt.

The evidence adduced by the prosecution
trying to show Anastasio Bosito as an accessory after the fact in the
commission of the crime, without being sufficient by itself, is besides
counterbalanced and completely weakened by the proofs of his
exculpation; and if the evidence of the prosecution is not nearly
sufficient to find the defendant guilty and to impose upon him the
penalty provided by law, certainly upon the result of the proofs of the
defense he can by no means be considered guilty nor can his innocence
be doubted. He must therefore be acquitted, with the costs de oficio.

The
other accused, Princena and Berido, having been acquitted, there is no
reason in law why they should be considered in this decision. (Articles
403, 502, and 503 of the Penal Code noted.)

By virtue, then,
of the considerations herein set forth, we are of the opinion that the
judgment below should be reversed and Anastasio Bosito must be
acquitted of the crimes with which he has been charged, with the costs de oficio;
the money taken from the possession of his wife and the two bags to be
delivered to him, and he shall immediately be released. This case to be
returned to the court of its origin, together with a certified copy of
this decision and of the sentence which shall be duly rendered., So
ordered.

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