THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. JOSE S. DIZON, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT.

It
appears from the record that on the 25th day of April, 1923, a
complaint was filed in the court of the justice of the peace of the
municipality of Angeles, of the Province of Pampanga, against the
above-named defendant, charging him with misappropriation of a certain
sum of money and falsification. The defendant having renounced his
right to a preliminary investigation, the cause was forwarded for
further proceedings to the Court of First Instance of said province. On
the 18th day of June, 1923, the prosecuting attorney of said province
filed against the defendant the following information:

“That
in or about the month of January, 1922, at Camp Stotsenburg, in the
Province of Pampanga, Philippine Islands, and within the jurisdiction
of this Court of First Instance, the above-named defendant Jose S.
Dizon, at that time assistant bookkeeper of the Post Exchange of said
Camp, voluntarily, illegally, and criminally, and with intent to
defraud said Post Exchange, altered and falsified the entries on the
books kept by him, and destroyed and rendered useless certain documents
and papers relative to the accounts of said Post Exchange, succeeding,
through such fraudulent means, to swindle away the amount of three
thousand nine hundred and sixty-four pesos and ninety-one centavos
(P3,964.91), equivalent to 19,824½ pesetas, belonging to the
Post Exchange, said defendant having embezzled said amount to the
prejudice of the said Post Exchange, and in violation of law.”

Upon said information the defendant was arraigned, tried, found guilty
of the crime charged in the complaint, and sentenced by the Honorable
Hermogenes Reyes, judge, under the provisions of articles 301, 534 and
89 of the Penal Code, to suffer five years, four months and twenty-one
days of prision correccional, with the accessory penalties of
the law, to pay a fine of P50, to indemnify the offended party in the
sum of P3,964.91, with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency,
and to pay the costs. From that sentence the defendant appealed.

The appellant now insists that the evidence adduced during the trial of
the cause fails to show that he committed a crime; that he is only
liable in a civil action. He presents no argument in support of that
contention, however, but limits himself to a criticism of the decision
of the lower court, insisting that the evidence does not support his
conclusions and that said sentence is full of “fifty thousand errors,”
without specifying the particular errors.

A thorough study
of the evidence shows that the accused, Jose S. Dizon, during the
period from October, 1920, to January, 1922, was in the employ, as
assistant bookkeeper at the Post Exchange of Camp Stotsenburg, an army
post in the Province of Pampanga; that during the time of his
employment he bought on credit various articles from the several stores
of the Post Exchange, for which he signed chits (vales)
showing the nature and value of the articles so bought; that said chits
as well as chits signed by other customers were recorded in the books
of the corresponding stores from which the articles were bought; that
every morning all of the chits of the preceding day were turned over to
the office of the Post Exchange, also to be recorded in the books of
said office, including the ledger (personal accounts) of the customers;
that said chits were kept in the office of the Post Exchange, and were
returned to the customers only upon payment of their account; that Jose
S. Dizon, as such assistant bookkeeper, was the employee in charge of
recording the sales of the several stores, in cash as well as on
credit, in the books of the office of the Post Exchange, and also of
the keeping of the said chits and the recording thereof in the personal
accounts of the customers; that he voluntarily did not record in his
personal account most of the chits signed by him for articles bought on
credit, amounting to P3,964.91 (Exhibit J-2), except a few of them
amounting only to P653.77, which latter amount he paid, leaving only a
balance of P29.43 (Exhibit J-1); that all the chits for the said amount
of P3,964.91 have disappeared, and that only a few chits amounting to
P199.99 were found properly kept in separate envelopes (Exhibits I to
I-4).

The foregoing facts clearly show that the accused
voluntarily falsified the ledger (personal accounts) of the office of
the Post Exchange, which was a commercial document, by not recording in his own
personal account the chits for articles bought by him from the stores
of the Post Exchange amounting to P3,964.91, thereby violating article
301 in relation with No. 4 of article 300 of the Penal Code, evidently
for the purpose of evading the payment of said amount.

The
same facts also lead us to the conviction that the accused maliciously
destroyed those chits, for the same purpose, and also to obliterate, to
some extent, the traces of his indebtedness, which act constitutes a
violation of paragraph 9 of article 535 of the Penal Code. (U. S. vs.
Tan Jenjua, 1 Phil., 38; U. S. vs. Kilayko, 31 Phil., 371.)

The evidence clearly establishes the guilt of the accused beyond a
reasonable doubt, and the findings of facts of the lower court are in
full harmony therewith. The fifty thousand errors attributed to the
lower court by counsel for appellant could not be found in spite of our
careful and painstaking study of the whole record. The only error of
said court noted by us is the finding, that in the commission of the
crime of estafa the accused violated article 534 instead of
article 535, No. 9, of the Penal Code. This error, however, is
immaterial as far as the appellant is concerned, in view of the fact
that under the provisions of either article the penalty remains the
same.

In view of all of the foregoing, and with the
modification above indicated, the sentence appealed from is hereby
affirmed, with costs. So ordered,

Malcolm, Villamor, Ostrand, Johns, and Romualdez, JJ., concur.