THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. YAKANS PAWIN, DAROH, MUCSAN, SARIOAL, AJAK, HADJULA, JAUKAL, AKONG AND ALANO, DEFENDANTS.

The five appellants, Yakans Ajak, Hadjula, Jaukal, Akong, and Moro Alano,
residents of the island of Basilan, Mindanao, were originally charged with
robbery in band with homicide together with four other Yakans named Mucsan and
Sarioal (both still at large) and Pawin and Daroh who were later, at the
instance of the Fiscal, discharged from the complaint and utilized as Government
witnesses. After trial, the five appellants were found guilty and sentenced each
to reclusion perpetua with the accessory penalties provided by law, to
indemnify, jointly and severally, the heirs of the deceased Mora Janilah in the
sum of P2,000, and to pay their proportionate share of the costs. For the
purpose of reversing said judgment the case has been brought here on appeal.
From a careful review of the record of this case we find the following facts to
have been fully established.

In the month of June, 1948, Hatib Miguel
lived in sitio Taberlungan, Maluso district, Basilan City, with his wife
Janilah, six daughters, a relative named Hakan Asmali who kept a store for
Miguel, Mora Puasa and her son Apisa, and a relative of Janilah named Morita
Sabehin. At about 8 in the evening of June 8, 1948, Mucsan and Sarioal who are
still unapprehended and the five appellants herein, went to the house of Pawin
and Daroh to get them to join their party. To insure compliance with the forced
Invitation, Sarioal and Mucsan held Daroh and Pawin respectively, by the hands,
threatening them with death if they did not follow. Because of fear, the two
joined the group. Alano and Mucsan were each carrying a Japanese rifle and a
kris; Ajak and Sarioal, a barong each; Akong, a kris; Jaukal, a barong and a
spear; and Hadjula, a barong. The group proceeded to the house of Hatib Miguel.
At a distance of about 10 brazas from the house, Alano ordered Pawin
and Daroh to sit down near a coconut tree, which they did. Alano went up the
house and ordered the inmates to surrender while the others surrounded the
building and blocked the door. Janilah opened the door and answered that they
would obey the order.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of no longer
being guarded, Pawin and Daroh escaped, returned home and later reported the
incident to the police. In the meantime, upon the entrance of Alano into the
house the Inmates became panic stricken. Asmali who had just awakened and who by
instinct had gotten hold of his barong was ordered by Alano to lay down his
weapon, which he did. Almost immediately however, he jumped down from the house
and succeeded in escaping although in the process of making the break through
the ring formed by the companions of Alano around the house, he was chased by
one of them and boloed on the left arm and on the back. Hatib Miguel also
succeeded in fleeing from his house and hid himself not far away.

When
Miguel thought that the marauders had already left his house, he cautiously
returned to it but found it completely empty of its occupants. In his store he
found merchandise scattered all about, and he noticed that certain articles of
clothing, packages of cigarettes and a barong, all valued at P100.00 had been
taken away by the robbers. Then he went down the house to look for his family.
On a path that leads to the well, he found his wife Janilah dead lying face
downward with her left arm completely severed and with a deep wound on the left
side of her back cutting the spinal column. About 20 brazas away he found his
two younger children Daynah and Harija, five and one year old, respectively,
crying. The first child bore a wound on her left forearm and another wound on
the left hand. Her ring finger was severed while the rest of the fingers were
wounded, Harija had a wound on the left leg.

The five appellants,
including their co-defendants Mucsan and Sarioal were fully identified by state
witnesses Pawin and Daroh as the bandits who forced them to join their company
and later went to the house of Hatib Miguel. Asmall duly recognized appellant
Alano because of a lighted lamp when Alano faced him and ordered him to lay down
his barong. There is no question that Alano and the members of his gang of
marauders are responsible for the robbery, the killing and the infliction of
physical Injuries in this case. Acting upon the report to the police given by
Pawin and Daroh, including the names of the appellants, the police were able to
confiscate a kris and a scabbard from Ajak; and a barong from appellant
Alano.

The appellants interposed the defense of alibi. Alano claimed that
on the day in question (June 8, 1948) he was working with one Alfonso Salcedo in
his place in Pangasahan preparing posts for his fence. Apart from the inherently
weak defense of alibi, the evidence shows that Pangasahan is only about two
hours walk to Taberlungan where Hatib Miguel lived, and that consequently, after
4 o’clock that afternoon when Alano and Salcedo stopped working, the former
could easily have walked to Taberlungan, join his gang and then go to the house
of Miguel to commit the robbery and the killing, and later return to his place
before morning.

As to the other appellants Ajak, Hadjula, Jaukal, and
Akong, their claim that they were in the house of Horo Iblang at Canibungan
until ten o’clock that night of June 8, was plausibly supported by two
witnesses, Iblang and Matumad. After analyzing the testimonies of these
witnesses, however, the trial court, in our opinion correctly rejected them as
unworthy of credit because of the improbability and unreasonableness of the
same. Moreover, it has been shown that the witness Iblang Yakan, was a brother
of appellants Jaukal and Akong while the other witness Iman Matumad admitted
that he was the protector (Iman) of all the said appellants. Their bias and
interest are obvious and understandable.

Although as a rule, the
testimony of co-accused in a criminal case should be received with caution,
coming as it does from a polluted source, the evidence given by Daroh and Pawin
should not be regarded in this category. True, they were originally accused with
the appellants herein but from the evidence submitted, we are satisfied that
they took no part in planning and the commission of the crime and that they had
accompanied the accused to the house of Miguel only because of force and
intimidation.

There is also added assurance in the guilt of the
appellants herein in the recommendation of appellants’ counsel de
oficio who, after studying the case, believes that the findings of fact
made by the trial court should not be altered. Said counsel de oficio
obviously acted wisely in asking for confirmation of the decision appealed from,
because a strict application of the law, considering the aggravating
circumstances that attended the commission of the crime, would result in the
imposition of the extreme penalty of death. This is equally realized by the
Office of the Solicitor General when it says that the imposable penalty provided
by law is death but that the judgment may be affirmed by applying the special
provision of Section 106 of the Administrative Code of the Department of
Mindanao and Sulu.

In the case of People vs. Main, 51 Phil. 933,
this Court said that the trial court did not commit error in imposing the
penalty of reclusion temporal to cadena perpetua because the
accused in that case was a non-Christian inhabitant of Mindanao to whom the
provisions of Section 106 of the Code already mentioned are applicable, and that
it is within the discretion of the trial court to apply the same. Said section
106 provides that “in pronouncing sentence upon a Moro or other non-Christian
inhabitants of the Department convicted of crime or misdemeanor, the judge or
justice may ignore any minimum penalty provided by law for the offense and may
impose such penalty not in excess of the highest penalty provided by law, as, in
his opinion, after taking into consideration all the circumstances of the case,
including the state of enlightenment of the accused and the degree of moral
turpitude which attaches to the offense among his own people, will best subserve
the interest of justice.” Because of this, we may affirm as we do hereby affirm
the imposition of the penalty of reclusion perpetua on the appellants.
As to the indemnity, it seems that the trial court overlooked the same. Although
the evidence shows that the value of the articles taken away by the appellants
is P100, the information filed in this case only mentions the sum of P52.60. The
indemnity for the articles taken, to be paid by the appellants should therefore
be limited to the amount of P52.60. With respect to the indemnity to be paid to
the heirs of the deceased, we hereby increase the amount from P2,000 to P6,000.
With these modifications, the decision appealed from is hereby affirmed with
costs.

Moran, C. J., Ozaeta, Paras, Pablo, Bengzon, Padilla, Tuason, Reyes,
and Torres, JJ., concur.