THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. DOMINGO TELAN, CANUTO TELAN AND AMANDO MACABALLUG, ACCUSED AND APPELLANTS.

Appeal from a decision of the. Court of First Instance of Isabela
(Judge Manuel Arranz, presiding) finding the defendants, after a joint
trial, guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crimes of murder and
frustrated murder and sentencing:

(a) In Criminal Case No. 2498 the
defendants each to suffer the penalty of LIFE IMPRISONMENT (RECLUSION
PERPETUA), with the accessory penalty of the law, to indemnify the
heirs of Ramon Soriano in the sum of P4.000.00, and to pay the costs;

(b)
In Criminal Case No. 2499 the defendants each to suffer an
indeterminate penalty ranging from SIX (6) YEARS ONE (1) DAY of prision
mayor as minimum to FOURTEEN (14) YEARS, EIGHT (8) MONTHS AND ONE (1)
DAY of reclusion temporal as maximum, with the accessory penalty of the
law, and to pay the costs.”

An examination of the records show the following facts:

On their way home to barrio Ngarag, Cabagan, Isabela, from a game of
cards in the house, of Gregoria Marayag in the barrio of Cubag of the
said municipality, at about 9:00 o’clock in the moonlit evening of
September 21, 1958, Ramon Soriano, Severino Paguirigan, and Victoriano
Malabug, who were walking in a field trail one behind the other in the
order named, were fired upon in ambush by some malefactors.

Ramon Soriano received several gunshot wounds in different parts of
his body, while Victoriano Malabug was hit in the thigh. Severino
Pagufrigan was not hit, because he ducked and laid fiat on the ground
upon noticing the volley. When the firing ceased, Severino Paguirigan
crawled for safety to a group of tall bushes commonly called “barani”
(wild spinach) about 20 meters away. The malefactors went near Ramon
and Victoriano, who were both lying on the ground, and believing them
dead, remarked in the Ibanag dialect, “Nappate ngana ira” (All of them
are already dead), and then went away. In withdrawing from the scene of
the ambush, the malefactors passed by the hiding place of Severino
Paguirigan at a distance of 2 meters. He heard them say in the dialect,
“Nabalin ngara ira” (They are already finished). Victoriano and
Severino claim that they recognized the malefactors as the three
accused, namely, Domingo Telan, Canuto Telan and Amando Macaballug,
with the first-named carrying a carbine.

When the defendants were gone, Severino Paguirigan returned to the
house of Gregoria Marayag and informed Ventura Macaballug, Miguel
Macaballug and Inocencio Laggui, who were still playing cards, that
Ramon Soriano and Victoriano Malabug were shot. He requested them to
accompany him to the scene of the shooting. They went to the place
where the shooting occurred, and then proceeded to inform Emilia
Tagufa, wife of Ramon Soriano, whose house was some 300 meters away.
Upon receiving the information, she rushed to the scene, and there she
found her husband flat on the ground, critically wounded and groaning.
She asked him about his injuries, and he indicated his stomach and
fractured bones. He said that he was going to die, and told her to take
care of their children. Twice, on inquiry by Emilia, he mentioned
Domingo Telan, Canuto Telan, and Amando Macaballug as their assailants.
Ramon Soriano was brought to the Cabagan dispensary in a rig driven by
Ventura Macaballug. However, before the municipal health officer, Dr.
Tercial Ramirez, could be summoned, Ramon Soriano expired, at about
11:00 o’clock that same evening.

The autopsy disclosed that Ramon Soriano died of shock and internal
hemorrhage caused by four firearm wounds, three of which traversed the
forearm and the umbilical and lumbar regions. The bullets had
perforated in many places the intestines and mesenteric blood vessels,
smashed the left kidney, and fractured the fourth lumbar vertebra.
Victoriano Malabug, in turn, had a bullet wound above the left knee,
traversing the thigh.

A report of the incident reached Cubagan Chief of Police Amado
Miguel at about 11:00 o’clock on that tragic night. While about to
proceed to the scene of the shooting with two of his policemen, they
met the rig bearing Ramon Soriano. Chief Miguel found Ramon speechless
and hovering between life and death. He called for the municipal health
officer, but Ramon died shortly thereafter.

On the following morning, Chief Miguel, together with his two
policemen, repaired to the scene of the crime and conducted an ocular
investigation. He made a sketch of the place based on the version of
Severino Paguirigan (Exhibit “2”). He recovered seven empty carbine
shells some 12 meters away from where Ramon Soriano and Victoriano
Malabug were shot (Exhibits “C” to “C-6),M and, in the same place,
found footprints of one person.

It has been sufficiently established that bad blood existed between
the assailants and their kinsfolk on one hand and the victims and their
kinsfolk on the other, arising from the alleged boloing by Ramon
Soriano and Severino Paguirigan of four carabaos of Canuto Telan and
three carabaos of Lourdes Macaballug,’ sister of accused Amando
Macaballug, for which the deceased and Paguirigan were convicted of
malicious mischief by the Justice of the Peace Court of Cabagan; but
the cases were on appeal when the shooting took place.

The defendants-appellants assign four errors allegedly committed by
the trial court, to which, however, simmer down to only one issue—the
identification of the culprits.

On this point, the decision appealed from reads, and we quote:

“* * *. We have carefully listened to the
declarations of Victoriano Malabug, Severiho Paguirigan and Emilia
Tagufa, we have observed their demeanors and manner of testifying and
we are fully convinced that the first two, Malabug and Paguirigan, who
were eyewitnesses to the crime because they were the target of the
shooting, recognized the defendants when they went near them
immediately after the shooting, to verify whether they (victims) were
still alive. Victoriano Malabug could not have been mistaken in
recognizing the defendants because they were only two meters from him
when they remarked with light bravado ‘they are already dead’, and that
their faces and stature are familiar to him because they are all
natives and barriomates in Cubag. Likewise, Severino Paguirigan also
recognized the defendants as they were passing by a group of “barani”
where he hid himself and uttering the remark, ‘they are already
finished.’ What is more, Emilia Tagufa who immediately repaired to the
scene of the shooting, situated about three hundred meters away from
her house, was able to talk with her husband who, conscious of an
impending death, told her to take care of their children and at the
same time mentioned the defendants as his assailants. * * *.”

The defense theorizes that because of the gravity of his wounds, the
deceased Soriano could not have spoken to his wife and revealed to her
the identity of his assailants. This is pure surmise, and can not
overcome the positive testimony of the widow and the brothers Malabug
who heard the declarations of the wounded man. The same can be said
about the defense’s theory that the bleeding Victoriano Malabug was too
weak to notice the assailants’ approach, and that Paguirigan could not
have identified them because he lay face down on the ground to escape
being noticed. Obviously, it was not impossible for him to lift his
head occasionally to survey the scene.

We find nothing unnatural in the inability of the widow and of the
other eyewitnesses to give a coherent narration and identify the
appellants that same night the event occurred due to their emotional
shock and agitation which was obvious even to the police officers. The
fact is that the very next day these appellants were pointed out to the
police as the culprits, and there is nothing on record to indicate any
conspiracy on the part of the state witnesses to falsely impute such a
serious crime to innocent persons.

The alibi set up by appellants is unimpressive and is supported
exclusively by their near relatives. It fails to overcome the positive
identification by the prosecution witnesses. The two appellants Telan
claim to have spent the night in question in their respective houses
located in the same barrio where the attack took place, while
Macaballug is asserted to have gone to the house of a cousin seven
kilometers away to help him harvest a corn crop, when he had not seen
this cousin for years.

Finding no error in the judgment appealed from, the same is hereby
affirmed, with the sole modification that the indemnity for the death
of Ramon Soriano is hereby increased to P6,000.00. Costs against
appellants.

Bengzon, C.J., Padilla, Bautista Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion, Barrera, Paredes, Dizon, Regala and Makalintal, JJ., concur.