G.R. No. L-16498. June 29, 1963
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. LUCAS CANITAN, ET AL., DEFENDANTS, BALTAZAR CAUSI, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT.
PADILLA, J.:
crime of murder in an information filed by the Assistant Provincial
Fiscal of Iloilo, committed as follows:
That on or about September 24, 1951, in the
municipality of Janiuay, province of Iloilo, Philippines, and within
the jurisdiction of this court, said accused, conspiring and working
together, all armed with ginunting, and knives with evident
premeditation, treachery and with a decided purpose to kill, taking
advantage of the nighttime to better realize their purpose did, then
and there willfully and unlawfully and and feloniously, attack and stab
Roque Estrada with their knives, thereby inflicting upon the latter
multiple wounds on the head, chest and abdomen, with intestines
protruding therefrom, and which wounds caused the death of said Roque
Estrada.Contrary to law, (crim. case No. 3078)
After trial, the Court of First Instance of Iloilo found Lucas
Canitan and Baltazar Causi guilty as principals of the crime of murder
and sentenced each of them to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua,
the accessories of the law, to indemnify the heirs of the deceased
Roque Estrada, jointly and severally, in the sum of P5,000 and to pay
the costs. Felipe Cordon was found guilty as an accessory to the crime
and was sentenced to suffer an indeterminate penalty of from one year
and one day of prision correctional to six years, one month and eleven days of prision mayor,
the accessories of the law, to indemnify the heirs of the deceased
Roque Estrada in the sum of Pl,000 without prejudice to his subsidiary
liability for the indemnity imposed upon the principals. From said
verdict and sentence, only Baltazar Causi appealed (G. R. No. L-6197).
Because of the loss of stenographic notes, by resolution of 6 April
1956 this Court remanded the case to the lower court for retrial and
judgment. After retrial, the court, presided over by Hon. Roberto
Zurbano, found Baltazar Causi guilty of the crime of murder and
sentenced him to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua,
the accessories of law, to indemnify jointly and severally with Lucas
Canitan the heirs of Roque Estrada in the sum of P5,000 and to pay
one-third of the costs. Baltazar Causi again appealed from the last
verdict and sentence (G. R. No. L-13184). Because of the loss of the
stenographic notes for the second time, by resolution of 18 February
1958 this Court remanded the case to the lower court for trial. On 24
November 1959 the court presided over by Hon. Arsenio Nañawa, found
Baltazar Causi guilty as principal of the crime of murder and, taking
into consideration the two aggravating circumstances of treachery and
relationship by affinity, sentenced him to suffer the penalty of death,
the accessories of the law, to indemnify the heirs of the deceased
Roque Estrada in the sum of P6,000 and to pay one-third of the costs.
From the verdict and sentence Baltazar Causi has appealed.
It appears that on 24 September 1951, at about 5:00 in the
afternoon, Lucas Canitan called on Baltazar Causi in the latter’s hut
at barrio Dabong, Janiuay, Iloilo. Both drank tuba and after
some drinks they plotted to kill Roque Estrada, because while Lucas
Canitan was in Guam, Marianas Islands, he was informed by one Claudio
Alfaras that his (Canitan’s) wife and Roque Estrada had illicit
relations and that the latter had keen bragging of his sexual prowess
by telling people in the locality of his having had carnal relations
several times with Canitan’s wife. On his part Baltazar Causi harbored
an ill feeling towards his brother-in-law, because the latter abandoned
his wife Sofia Causi (appellant’s sister) and their three children,
aggravated by Estrada’s dishonoring appellant’s younger sister
Saturnina Causi who gave birth to a child. Estrada went to live with
another woman in Antique and then abandoned her also and during all the
time he was away wandering from place to place, his children and wife
were supported by her parents. A little later, Felipe Cordon joined the
two in drinking tuba and after some drinks Canitan and Causi
invited Cordon to go with them, to serenade. Accepting the invitation,
Cordon was: asked to borrow the banjo in the house of Julio Seniego
(Exhibits A, B and C). At about 8:00 o’clock p.m., Baltazar Causi,
Lucas Canitan and Felipe Cordon left the hut for the purpose of
serenading but upon reaching the place of Silvestre Mamon in the same
barrio, Lucas Canitan armed with a jungle knife and a flashlight told
his companions to wait for him downstairs as he was going up the house
(Exhibit A). The two heard Canitan ask Mamon who were the people in the
house, to which question the latter answered: “it is me.” Further
insisted on telling who else were in the house, Mamon said “Pare Roque
(Estrada) is also here.” (Exhibits B and C). Canitan immediately
searched for Roque Estrada with his flashlight. Thus were heard by
Cordon (Exhibit B) as scuffle and struggle ensued between Lucas Canitan
and Roque Estrada for the possession of the jungle knife but the later
failed to wrest it from his assailant (Exhibit C). A few moments later
Roque Estrada leaped from the house followed by Lucas Canitan, the
latter chasing, the former who tried to escape. Canitan and Causi ran
after Estrada until Canitan caught up with Estrada and stabbed him and
as the latter fell, Causi struck Estrada’s forehead with his (Causi’s)
bolo (ginunting). Canitan knelt on the prostrate body of his adversary
lying on his back and kept on stabbing until Roque Estrada expired
(Exhibits A and B). When he thought his victim was already dead,
Canitan asked Cordon to help carry away the body which the three buried
about knee deep in an isolated muddy place near a stream not far from
the place where the victim was killed.
After burying the deceased the three repaired to the house of
Espiridion Suresca. In the evening of 25 September 1951, a police team
headed by Cpl. Engada arrested Causi and Canitan in the barrio and in
the course of the inquiry made by the peace officers both admitted
their participation in the death of Estrada. Cordon was also
apprehended, and upon being asked who had killed the deceased he
answered that Baltazar Causi and Lucas Canitan had killed the deceased.
The following morning, 26 September 1951, the peace officers brought
the suspects to the place where they said they had buried Roque Estrada
and upon instruction of the police the body of the deceased was
exhumed, placed in a hammock, loaded in a truck by Canitan and Causi
and brought to the municipal building of Janiuay, Iloilo. On that same
day, 26 September, Dr. Amadeo B. San Diego, president of the Sanitary
Division of Janiuay, Iloilo examined the cadaver of the deceased and
certified the following:
- Body in odorous condition, death occured more than 36 hours on examination,
- Multiple stab wounds in the head, chest and abdomen.
- Intestines protruding from the big stab wound on the abdomen.
The above findings were due to external violence with the use of
sharp instruments. Immediate cause of death were (was) shock and
hemorrhage. (Exhibit D).
He testified that he had examined the cadaver of the deceased Roque
Estrada at the municipal building of Janiuay, Iloilo, after the
exhumation on 26 September 1951 and that the immediate cause of death
was hemorrhage due to multiple stab wounds on the head, chest and
abdomen; that the two kinds of wounds that caused the death of the
victim could have been produced by two instruments a bolo (ginunting)
and a jungle knife—which could not be produced during the third trial;
that the death of the victim was due mainly to the stab wound in the
abdomen which caused the intestines to protrude; and that the wounds in
the chest and abdomen were caused by thrusts of a sharp-pointed
instruments, and on the head, by the blade and not the point of a
sharp-pointed bladed instrument (ginunting), as a bolo that would
produce an “elongated with margin clean cut” wound caused by slash and
not by thrust or piercing.
Nicolas A. Lutero, Justice of the Peace of Janiuay, Iloilo,
testified that before the appellant, Felipe Cordon and Lucas Canitan
signed their respective affidavits Exhibits A, B and C) he translated
the contents thereof in their local dialect and made them understand
that by signing said papers they would be admitting the contents
thereof as well as their guilt; that they signed without bodily harm,
force or violence being inflicted upon them particularly upon appellant
Baltazar Causi.
The appellant denied having taken part in the killing of his
brother-in-law Roque Estrada. His co-defendant Felipe Cordon, who with
Lucas Canitan was convicted but did not appeal, corroborated the
testimony of the appellant that the latter, had taken no part in the
killing of Roque Estrada.
The denial by the appellant of conspiracy with Lucas Canitan and
participation in the killing of his brother-in-law cannot be given
credence in view of the clear and convincing confession of his guilt in
his affidavit (Exhibit A), signed four days after the commission of the
crime. Autopsy findings show that the various wounds in the chest,
abdomen and head were caused by two different weapons and that their
size, nature and positions were not inflicted by only one person. The
president of the sanitary division of Janiuay, Iloilo, who had
performed the autopsy of the cadaver of the deceased, testified that
the wounds inflicted in the chest and abdomen were caused by
sharps-pointed instrument thrust through the body while those in the
head were produced by bladed instrument caused by slashing producing an
elongated wound with clean cut margin (Exhibit D). Besides, when
appellant was investigated by Cpl. Engada immediately following the
killing, he admitted that he used the bolo (ginunting) in killing
Estrada while Lucas Canitan who owned the jungle knife used it in
stabbing Roque (Exhibits A and C).
The scheme to kill Estrada was plotted and decided by the appellant
and Canitan at about 5:30 in the afternoon of 24 September 1951 and it
was past 8:00 in the evening of that day when the slaying was done. It
is then apparent that the qualifying circumstance of evident
pre-meditation preceded the commission of the crime.[1]
The aggravating circumstance of treachery cannot be taken into
account for there is nothing in the evidence to show that the appellant
and his co-defendants employed means, methods or forms in the
commission to insure its execution and without risk to themselves. The
fact that the deceased and Lucas Canitan struggled for the possession
of the latter’s knife before the former leaped from the house to escape
followed by the latter negates the attendance of this circumstance.
Except an admission by the appellant that the deceased was his
brother-in- law, relationship by affinity should not be deemed to
aggravate the crime in the absence of evidence to show that the
offended party is of a higher degree in the relationship than that of
the offender.
There being no mitigating nor aggravating circumstance, the penalty
to be imposed, as is hereby imposed, is the medium period or reclusion perpetua.
The rest of the sentence appealed from is affirmed, with costs against the appellant.
Bengzon, C. J., Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion, Reyes, J.B.J., Barrera, Paredes, Dizon, Regala and Makalintal, JJ., concur.
[1] People vs. Bangug, 52 Phil. 87.