THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF-APPELLEE, VS. TOMAS SALCEDO, ROBERTO ESGUERRA, ROBERTO MADAYAO, AND ALBERTO LEBAN, DEFENDANTS-APPELLANTS.

Under review is the decision of Judge Onofre
A. Villaluz of the then Circuit Criminal Court of Pasig, Metro Manila, dated August 30, 1977, convicting the accused Tomas Salcedo, Roberto Esguerra,
Roberto Madayao and Alberto Leban,
of the crime of Murder and Multiple Frustrated Murder.

The offenses charged in the information took place inside the
National Penitentiary, also known as the New Bilibid
Prison, in Muntlnlupa, Metro Manila.  The accused and the victims in this case are
all convicted prisoners, serving final sentences in the New Bilibid
Prison.  The accused were members of the Sigue-Sigue Sputnik
gang, who were confined in Brigade Dormitory No. 4-D, while the victims were
Members of a rival gang known as the G.I.G. (Genuine Ilocano
Gang), who were quartered in Brigade Dormitory No. 13.

As shown in the record, the fatal incident took place at about 10:00 o’clock in the morning of September 24, 1975.  Six prisoners belonging to the G.I.G. who
were then assigned as kitchen boys, namely, Rodolfo Querrer,
Virgilio Domingo Jose Obanil,
Cirilo Monroy, Aniceto Nino and Pacifico Catabay, came to Dormitory No. 4-D to deliver breakfast
rations to the inmates in that cell. 
They parked their truck about three meters from the dormitory.  While Catabay was
supervising the unloading of the food from the truck, all of a sudden members
of the notorious Sigue-Sigue Sputnik gang who were
quartered in the said dormitory rushed out with improvised deadly weapons and,
upon command of their leader, Generoso Dungca, alias “Boy Kamatis
“, who shouted “Kill them all”, attacked the kitchen boys.  Order was restored only upon the arrival of
prison guards who after quelling the melee immediately brought the injured and
wounded kitchen boys to the prisons hospital NBP
Hospital for treatment.  One of the injured prisoners, Cirilo Monroy, died that very
morning, due to “hemorrhage, acute, massive, secondary to multiple stab
wounds, caused by sharp, pointed, single-bladed instrument”, as found by
the Medico-Legal Officer, Dr. Bienvenido Munoz of the
NBI.  The other injured prisoners,
Rodolfo Querrer, Virgilio
Domingo, Jose Obanil, Aniceto
Nino and Pacifico Catabay,
sustained stab wounds which, according to Dr. Luz Alma Santos of the NBP
Hospital, could have caused their death if it were not for timely medical
intervention.

In the investigation that
followed, the attackers were identified and charged with Murder and Multiple
Frustrated Murder in the information filed by the Provincial Fiscal of Rizal, dated February 3, 1977. 
Charged in the information were the following accused Generoso Dungca, Tomas Salcedo, Roberto Esguerra,
Roberto Madayao and Alberto Leban.

The accused, Tomas Salcedo, Roberto Esguerra,
Roberto Madayao and Alberto Leban,
were arraigned on February 10, 1977.  All of the said accused, except Tomas Salcedo, pleaded not guilty.  Generoso Dungca, the leader of the gang, was not arraigned because
he had escaped from prison on April
23, 1976, and to date, has remained at large.  The trial court ordered mandatory
presentation of evidence against Tomas Salcedo who
pleaded guilty, and ordered trial on the merits with respect to those who
pleaded not guilty.

After trial, the court a
quo rendered a decision, dictated and promulgated
in open court on August 30,
1977, finding the accused Tomas Salcedo, Roberto Esguerra, Roberto Madayao and
Alberto Leban, guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the
crimes charged in the information, and sentencing each of them, for the
death of Cirilo Monroy,
“to suffer the penalty of death; to indemnify the heirs of Cirilo Monroy in the amount of
P12,000.00; to pay moral damages in the amount of P5,000.00; another P5,000.00
as exemplary damages, jointly and severally; and to pay their proportionate
shares of the costs”.  With respect
to the charge of Multiple Frustrated Murder, each of the accused was sentenced
“to suffer the penalty of from seventeen (17) years, four (4) months and
one (1) day of reclusion temporal, minimum, to twenty (20) years of reclusion
temporal, as maximum; to pay moral damages in the amount of P5,000.00; another
P5,000.00 as exemplary damages, jointly and severally; and to pay their
proportionate share of the costs”.

Because of the death penalty imposed, the decision was elevated
to this Court for automatic review.  This
case was considered submitted for decision on January 8, 1981, without appellants’ reply brief.

Accused-appellant, Roberto Esguerra,
died in prison on January 8, 1981
of “massive hemoptysis, secondary to pulmonary
tuberculosis, moderately advanced”. 
The death was reported to this Court by the then Acting Director of the
Bureau of Prisons Vicente R. Raval, in a letter dated
August 2, 1982.  Required to comment on the letter, the
Solicitor General confirmed the death of the accused Roberto Esguerra and recommended dismissal of
the case against him insofar as his criminal liability was concerned, without
prejudice to the determination of his civil liability, to be recovered from his
estate.  In view thereof, the Court, in
its resolution dated September 28, 1982, dismissed the case insofar as the criminal
liability of the accused-appellant Roberto Esguerra
is concerned.

The lone assignment of
error raised in appellants’ brief is that the trial court allegedly
“failed to prove the crimes charged in the information with clear and
convincing evidence beyond reasonable doubt”.

From the evidence adduced
at the trial, the court a quo, found that the accused Tomas Salcedo, Roberto
Esguerra, Roberto Madayao
and Alberto Leban were the assailants who attacked
the victims in the morning of September 24, 1973; that the
attack, planned beforehand, was evidently premeditated; that the action was
concerted and was made so suddenly as to throw the victims off-guard when they
were about to deliver breakfast rations to the inmates of Brigade Dormitory No.
4-D, where the accused were quartered; that the accused were armed with
improvised deadly weapons which they must have prepared secretly for some time
for the purpose of committing the crime. 
The trial court found the elements of treachery, evident premeditation
and recidivism sufficiently established by the evidence.

The accused interposed
self-defense.  Their version was capsulized by the trial court in its decision, as follows:

From their testimonies, it appeared, as they would want to
establish that at about 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning of September 24, 1975, Cirilo Monroy, belonging to the
Gang of Brigade 13, with a container of wine went to brigade 4-D, and as usual,
invited his friend Tomas Salcedo for a drink; that when both were loaded of the
wine, Salcedo and Monroy
had an altercation about the change (sukli) of the
former until it became worst and Monroy launched
(sic) on Salcedo with a knife, but the latter was
able to parry, got hold of the said knife and struck Monroy.  Monroy died.  When the kitchen boys saw this incident they
all rushed to rescue Monroy and there was a free for
all fight.  There were exchanges of
stones and bottles and all that the accused did was to defend themselves.  In the case of Alberto Leban
he was about to come Out from his brigade because he heard a commotion when he
was met by stones and he
retaliated until he happened to pick up a knife from the opposite gang and
struck the same on him although he could not recognize who that prisoner
was.”

The trial court did not
give credence to the theory of self-defense put up by the accused, inasmuch as
there was no evidence that the victims were armed during the incident.  It was also noted by the court that none of
the accused were injured during the incident, while the victims were the only
ones who sustained fatal or serious injuries.  The court found sufficient evidence to
establish that the accused were the
ones who were armed with deadly weapons, including a spear, several pieces of
IDW (ice picks) and darts which were surrendered to the prison guards by Generoso Dungca and by an unidentified inmate from
Dormitory No. 4-D; some were recovered near the water tank of the said
building.

We find no reason to disturb the findings of the trial
court.  A complete review of the record
raises no doubt in our mind that the decision of the court is supported by the
evidence adduced at the trial.

The case against Roberto Esguerra was
dropped on September 28, 1982,
on account of his death, but only with respect to his criminal liability.

WHEREFORE, judgment is rendered affirming in toto the decision of the trial court dated August 30, 1977, except as to the amount of indemnity for the
death Cirilo Monroy which
is hereby increased to P30,000.00. 
Inasmuch as under the 1987 Constitution, the death penalty has been
abolished until such time as
Congress may decide to reimpose the same^[1], the sentence of death imposed in the
decision of the trial court is hereby
automatically commuted to reclusion perpetua.

The Provincial Fiscal of Rizal is
hereby directed to make the necessary arrangements with the appropriate
authorities for the apprehension of the accused Generoso
Dungca who has escaped and is at large, so that he
may be brought to trial.

SO ORDERED.

Teehankee, C.J., Fernan,
Narvasa, Melencio-Herrera,
Gutierrez, Jr., Cruz, Paras, Feliciano, and Gancayco, JJ., concur.

^[1]
Sec. 19, Article II.