THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. BASILIO PADUA ET AL., DEFENDANTS AND APPELLANTS.

Basilio Padua and Mamerto Flores were charged with the crime of robbery
committed in the house of the spouses Ariston Flores and Avelina Garcia at
barrio Diome, Municipality of Maria Aurora, Sub-Province of Aurora, Quezon, on 2
January 1956 (criminal case No. 1324).

The same defendants, together with Vicente Julian, were charged with the
crime of murder for having killed Ariston Flores and Avelina Garcia in their
dwelling place on 7 April 1957 (criminal cases Nos. 1427 and 1441). Santiago
Rebuliido, an alleged confederate, was not charged because he had not been
apprehended.

Upon arraignment they entered a plea of not guilty.

The three cases were tried jointly. After trial, the Court of First Instance
of Quezon rendered judgment, as follows:

WHEREFORE, the Court finds the accused Mamerto Flores and Basilio Padua
guilty of robbery as charged in the information in Criminal Case No. 1324, and
of murder in Criminal Cases Nos. 1427 and 1441 and, taking into account the
aggravating circumstances of nocturnity and dwelling, hereby sentences the said
defendants, and each of them, in Criminal Case No. 1324, to suffer an
indeterminate penalty ranging from four (4) years and two (2) months of
prision correccional, as minimum, to eight (8) years and one (1) day of
prision mayor, as maximum, and to reclusion perpetua in Criminal
Cases Nos. 1427 and 1441, to indemnify the heirs of the deceased Arist6n Flores
and Avelina Garcia, in each case, the sum of P4,000, for each group heirs, to
the other accessory penalties provided for by law, and to pay their
proportionate shares in the costs of the proceedings.

The defendant Vicente Julian is acquitted for insufficiency of the evidence
against him, with the proportionate share of the costs de oficio, and, it
appearing that he is now under detention, he is hereby ordered released from
custody, unless he be detained for some other cause.

From this judgment only the defendants found guilty of murder in the two
cases have appealed.

On the night of 7 April 1957, between 9:00 and 10:00 o’clock, four persons
went to the house of the spouses Ariston Flores and Avelina Garcia, located in
the barrio of Diome, Municipality of Maria Aurora, Sub-Province of Aurora,
Province of Quezon. Basilio Padua and Santiago Rebullido went up the house and
Mamerto Flores and Vicente Julian stayed on the ground. Suddenly a shot rent the
air of that summer night. Leandro Garcia, a younger brother of Avelina Garcia,
who had been awakened, saw Padua fire at his sister. Stricken with fear, he
jumped out of the house and while running away he heard another report of a gun
from the house. The following morning, at about 8:00 o’clock, Dionisio Estonilo,
the Chief of Police of Maria Aurora, received a report from the barrio
lieutenant, Geronimo Marzan, that the spouses Ariston Flores and Avelina Garcia
had been found dead in their house. Upon receipt of the report, the former
immediately repaired to the scene of the crime, accompanied by two policemen, a
photographer and the sanitary inspector. Leandro Garcia told the chief of police
that he had seen Basilio Padua fire the first shot after which he jumped out of
thehouse and ran away. The chief of police told the Lieutenant-Governor that
Leandro Garcia was an important witness, so the latter was brought by the former
to Baler. The chief of police drew a sketch of the house, showing the relative
positions of the dead spouses (Exhibit G), and had photographs taken of the
victims as they were found in the house and of the house itself (Exhibits F, F-l
and F-2). On the floor of the house he also found a blank cartridge (Exhibit I).
The bodies of the deceased were brought to town and later on examined by Dr.
Sergio Farin, the municipal health officer, who found, issued certificates of
the examination he made of the cadavers (Exhibits L and K) and testified that
the spouses had died of gunshot wounds. He certified that he found a gunshot
wound in the body of the deceased Ariston Flores “with a point of entrance at
the right mid-subclavicular region with the point of exit below the lower border
of the left scapula,” the bullet piercing the lungs and the heart, and “the
deceased must have been shot in a sitting position” (Exhibit L). He testified
that “the assailant was standing and the victim was lying down or in an upright
position.” Avelina Garcia sustained a gunshot wound, the bullet hitting the
right maxilla and coming out of the left occipital bone. The shot perforated the
skull and damaged the brain (Exhibit K). He further testified that the assailant
must have been only 1% to 2 feet from her, because of the presence of powder
burns on her right face, and that she must have been sitting on the bed with her
assailant standing in front of her because of the downward direction of the
wound.

After their arrest Basilio Padua, Mamerto Flores and Vicente Julian signed
sworn statements before the municipal mayor of Maria Aurora. Mamerto Flores in
his sworn statement admitted that, together with Basilio Padua, Vicente Julian
and Santiago Rebullido, he went to the deceased spouses’ dwelling place for the
purpose of killing them, because they harbored an ill-feeling towards them for
the criminal complaint for robbery filed against him and Padua and for the
slugging of Julian and Rebullido by Ariston Flores; and that Padua and Rebullido
were the ones who went up the house and shot the spouses (Exhibit D). Basilio
Padua subscribed and swore to his first statement dated 10 April 1957 before the
Justice of the Peace and the Municipal Mayor (Exhibit 5-Padua-Flores), but on 12
April 1957 he subscribed to another statement before the aforementioned mayor of
Aurora, (Exhibit E). In his first sworn statement (Exhibit 5-Padua-Flores) Padua
said that he together with Flores and two others went to the house of the
spouses and that one of the companions of Flores went up the victim’s house and
shot the spouses, stating further that he was forced to go along with Flores and
the two others. In his subsequent statement (Exhibit E) he said that on the
night of 7 April 1957 at about 10:00 o’clock he went with Flores, Julian and
Rebullido to the house of the spouses Ariston Flores and Avelina Garcia to kill
them, because the latter had filed a complaint for robbery against Mamerto
Flores; that he shot Ariston Flores and Santiago Rebullido, Avelina Garcia; and
that this last statement, and not the former, is true (Exhibit E).

The medical certificates (Exhibits K and L), the death certificates (Exhibits
J and J-1), the pictures taken of the victims and their house (Exhibits F, F-1
and F-2), the sketch of the interior of the house of the victims (Exhibits G,
G-1 to G-7), the empty cartridge of the bullet found in the house of the victims
in the possession of the Clerk of the Court of First Instance of Quezon (Exhibit
I), and the sworn statements of the three defendants (Exhibits C, D and E) were
admitted anjd read in evidence.

The appellants contend that, aside from their confessions which had been
extorted from them by means of force and violence and for that reason should not
have been relied upon by the trial court, there is no other evidence upon which
a judgment of conviction may be predicated.

On this point the trial court made the following findings which are supported
by the evidence:

As already stated, defendants Flcres and Padua claim that they signed their
respective confessions, Exhibits D and E, because they had been maltreated by
Sgt. Felipe, Cpl. Sibal and Pfc. Gramaje. Defendant Mamerto Flores also claims
that he had been maltreated by Cpl. Sibal and Pfc. Gramaje on the way from his
house to the municipal building of Maria Aurora, and inside the office of the
chief of police of the said municipality on the afternoon of 10 April 1957.
Again, this claim mubt be overruled. Policeman Bitong’s testimony regarding the
alleged maltreatment of Mamerto Flores on the way from the latter’s house to the
municipal building, and then inside the office of the chief of police of Maria
Aurora in the afternoon of 10 April 1957, is inherently unbelievable. It is to
be seriously doubted whether the constabulary soldiers could have had the
effrontery to maltreat a prisoner on a public street. It is, likewise,
unbelievable that the chief of police of Maria Aurora should have tolerated the.
alleged maltreatment of the defendant Flores by Cpl. Sibal and Pfc. Gramaje
right inside his office. Bitong’s testimony becomes all the more unbelievable
when we take into consideration that the alleged maltreatment of Mamerto Flores
by Sibal and Gramaje in the office of the chief of police occurred during office
hours and the maltreatment was so serious that Mamerto’s cries or shouts had
attracted the people, inside the municipal building. Furthermore, it is
incredible that the Municipal Mayor of Maria Aurora, who must have been in his
office on the second floor of the building and who could have heard the cries or
shouts of Mamerto Flores, should have tolerated the maltreatment considering
that, according to the municipal mayor, the defendants Flores and Padua are his
political henchmen. Besides, assuming that Mamerto Flores had really been
maltreated by Cpl. Sibal and Pfc. Gramaje in the afternoon of 10 April 1957,
such alleged maltreatment could not have affected the voiuntariness of his
confession, Exhibit D, considering that the said statement was given by Mamerto
Flores not to Sibal or Gramaje but to Rosauro L. Cucal at the headquarters of
the 109th PC Co. in San Luis, Baler, on 11 April 1957, when Mamerto Flores was
no longer under the influence of the effects of the alleged maltreatment.

Defendant Padua’s repudiation of his written confession, Exhibit E, on the
same ground of maltreatment, must also be discarded. According to him, he was
picked up in his house on the afternoon of 8 April 1957 and brought to the PC
barracks in Barrio Ditailen, Maria Aurora. Assuming that he had been maltreated
by Pfc. Gramaje in Ditailen, he was no longer under the influence of the said
maltreatment when he signed his confession in the headquarters of 109th PC Co.
in San Luis, Baler, Quezon, on 11 April 1957, not before Gramaje but before Sgt.
Felix Santiago. Padua’s complaint of maltreatment in tile hands of the PC
investigators, is alsd belied by his statement taken by Pfc. Gramaje on 9 April
1957 in San Luis, Baler, the tenor of which tended to exculpate himself, and
primarily placed the blame for the killing of the spouses, Ariston Flores and
Avelina Garcia, on his co-defendant Mamerto Flores and some alleged companions
of the latter, who were unknown to him, and who had, according to him,
practically forced him into going with them to the house of the said spouses.
(Exhibit 5-PaduaFlores). It is unthinkable that the constabulary investigators
would maltreat a prisoner into signing a written statement of the nature of
Padua’s original statement.

The claim of maltreatment put up by defendants Padua and Flores are (is) also
belied by the abundance of details in their respective statements, Exhibits D
and E, which could have been known only to them but which were difficult if not
impossible, for the investigators to have known. Thus, Flores and Padua even
gave a description of the firearms used in the killing, as one with a long
barrel, and another with a short barrel (Question and Answer No. 12, Exhibit D;
Question and Answer No. 10, Exhibit E). They also mentioned a certain Santiago
Rebullido, who is still at large, as one of their companions in going to the
house of the spouses Ariston Flores and Avelina Garcia. (Question and Answer No.
9, Exhibit D; Question and Answer No. 3, Exhibit E). Mamerto Flores even told
the investigators that Padua waa the first one to go up th« house of the
victims, followed by Santiago Rebullido, and that he (Flores) had even, hidden
one hand grenade in a banana plant near his house while, for his part, Padua
told the investigators that the firearms he used had been given by him to
Mamerto Flores. Lastly, Mamerto Flores told the investigators that the firearm
he used had been given by him to Mamerto Flores. Lastly, Mamerto Flores told
investigators that after the death of the spouses, Ariston Flores and Avelina
Garcia, Santiago Rebullido told him in Barrio Bangco that it was he who shot and
killed the spouses, a conversation which could not have been known by the
investigators.

But what is really destructive of the claim of defendants Padua and Flores,
regarding their alleged maltreatment in the hands of the PC investigators, is
the testimony of their own witness, Mayor Pedro Wenceslao of Maria Aurora. Mayor
Wenoeslao testified that a few days after Padua and Flores and Julian had
acknowledged their respective statements before him, they returned to his
Office, accompanied by a policeman, and asked him, “What shall we do, Mayor? We
signed the affidavits because we were afraid we will be maltreated by the
soldiers.” From Mayor Wenceslao’s language, it can be easily inferred that the
defendants signed their respective affidavits not because they had been actually
maltreated, but because they were merely afraid that they might be maltreated by
the PC soldiers. If these defendants had really been maltreated by the PC
soldiers into signing their respective statements, they could have easily told
Mayor Wenceslao, even if some PC soldiers were present when they acknowledged
their said statements before the Mayor, because the latter would have certainly
given them all the protection of his office, considering that they were his
political followers.

The fact that defendants Padua and Flores pleaded not guilty in the
preliminary investigation conducted by the Justice of the Peace of Maria Aurora
(Exhibits 8 and &-a-Padua-Flores), does not in any manner substantiate their
claim of maltreatment. The preliminary investigation was made a considerable
length of time after Padua and Flores had made their fatal admissions in
Exhibits D and E. Realizing the gravity of the admissions they had made, it must
have occurred to them, as an afterthought, to repudiate their confessions and to
voice their innocence at the preliminary investigation. It would, indeed, be
dangerous to overrule and discard a confession made by a defendant only by the
simple expedient of hii later on pleading not guilty upon his arraignment in the
preliminary investigation for then, all that defendant would have to do to
repudiate a confession, would be to plead not guilty upon arraigment.

* * *

Contrary to the claim of the appellants, there is evidence, besides the
confessions made by them, which is the testimony of Leandro Garcia, who
testified at a joint trial of the three cases, to the effect that he saw Basilio
Padua fire at his sister on 7 April 1957.

A motive for the killing of the spouses is not lacking. The complaint filed
by the spouses charging the appellants with the crime of robbery committed in
their house on 2 January 1956 upon which criminal case No. 1S24 was commenced
and tried jointly with these two criminal cases for murder (Nos. 1427 and 1441)
and the slugging ol Vicente Julian and Santiago Rebullido by Ariston Flores as
revealed by Mamerto Flores in his sworn statement (Exhibit D) furnish the motive
for the commission of the crimes.

The trial court correctly gave no credence to the alibi set up by both
appellants in the face of clear and positive evidence showing that they
committed the crimes with which they are charged.

As found by the trial court, the appellants Basilio Padua and Mamerto Flores
are guilty beyond reasonable doubt of murder in each case qualified by treachery
with the aggravating circumstances of nocturnity and dwelling, without any
mitigating circumstance to offset them. The main penalty to be imposed in each
case, as provided for in Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code, is death. For
lack of the number of votes required by law to impose such penalty, the medium
period of the penalty provided by law has to be imposed.

The judgment appealed from in each case is affirmed, with costs against the
appellants.

Bengzon, C. J., Bautista Angelo, Concepcion, Reyes, J. B, L., Barrera,
and Paredes, JJ., concur.