G.R. No. 1781. May 01, 1905

This case having been brought in accordance with Act No. 518, the
court acquitted Paulino Bonifacio and Eugenio Pangan and sentenced
Damaso Salvador, Marcelo de Jesus, and Eustaquio de los Reyes to ten
years’ imprisonment. The judgment has become final and executory as
regards Paulino Bonifacio and Eugenio Pangan, for the reason of being
an acquittal. It is likewise final as regards Eustaquio de los Reyes,
because the latter did not appeal therefrom, and although the
prosecution also appealed, yet such appeal can not now alter the
condition of that judgment for the reason that the appeal of the
Government can not be admitted, according to repeated decisions of this
court agreeing with the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United
States in the case of Kepner vs. United States.^[1] As
regards Damaso Salvador and Marcelo de Jesus, the prosecution also
appeals, but for the same reason this appeal can not be taken
cognizance of and had the defendants themselves not appealed, the
judgment which we now have before us would have already become
executory as regards all the defendants.

Deciding then, this appeal interposed by the defendants, Damaso
Salvador and Marcelo de Jesus, we believe that their guilt is well
found and we rectify the error made in the Spanish text of Act No.
1121, amendatory of Act No. 518, by reason of the incorrectness of the
translation. In the Spanish text of Act No. 1121 it reads that the
penalty prescribed is “death or imprisonment for a period less than twenty years, in the discretion of the court.” The text of Act No. 518 reads:

“The penalty of death or imprisonment for a period no less than twenty years, in the discretion of the court.”

This text conforms with its English text, which is the governing one, the English being as follows:

“By death or imprisonment for not less than twenty years, in the discretion of the court.”

This typographical error in Act No. 1121 induced the judge to
understand that it was an amendment to Act No. 518 and that although
the latter act established a penalty of not less than twenty years, Act
No. 1121 stated that the penalty should not be more than twenty
years—that is to say, that it should always be less than twenty years.

Therefore we sentence Damaso Salvador and Marcelo de Jesus to twenty
years’ imprisonment, with the costs in both instances. So ordered.

Torres, Mapa, and Carson, JJ., concur.

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^[1] 195 U.S., 100.