THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLEE, VS. SAKAM ET AL., DEFENDANTS. SAKAM AND IMAM TANTALI, APPELLANTS.

Sakam and Imam Tantali and seventeen other
Moras, having been charged with multiple murder, were convicted of said
crime and sentenced by the Court of First Instance of Sulu, where this
case originated, to death, and to indemnify jointly and severally the
heirs of each of their fourteen victims in the sum of P1,000.

The record of this case was forwarded to this court not on appeal but in consulta
by virtue of the provisions of section 50 of General Orders, No. 58
which direct such proceedings in all cases wherein the death penalty is
imposed.

The attorney de oficio for said two accused Sakam and Imam Tantali, as the others upon whom the penalty of reclusion perpetua
was imposed did not appeal from the sentence, claims in his laconic
brief that the lower court committed two alleged errors in imposing the
penalty in question upon them, not treating them in the same manner as
it treated their coaccused upon whom only the penalty of reclusion perpetua was imposed, and not considering the mitigating circumstance of lack of instruction and education in their favor.

We have reviewed the record and the evidence very carefully and are convinced that the facts occurred as follows:

Moro Abdullah, having been charged with the crime of murder in
criminal case No. 3955 of the Court of First Instance of Sulu by reason
of the violent death of another Moro named Janapia or Hanapia, was
convicted of said crime after the corresponding trial and sentenced to reclusion perpetua and to indemnify the heirs of said deceased in the sum of P1,000. (Exhibit B.)

Abdullah, after having succeeded in obtaining his provisional
release prior to the promulgation of his sentence due to the bond filed
by his kin and friends, refused to surrender to the constituted
authorities and was hiding from them until, upon advice of Panglima
Agga, municipal president of the district of Panamao, and of the
accused Moro Sakam and others, whose good offices were sought by said
Panglima Agga and by Captain Leon Angeles of the Constabulary, he
finally decided to surrender. After his sentence had been read to him,
he was sent to San Ramon Penal Colony to serve it.

Sakam, Abdullah’s uncle, resented the imposition of the sentence of prision
upon his nephew and the sending of the latter to said penal colony. His
followers and coaccused, particularly Imam Ibbah, Hassan, Imam Tantali
and Mahamud, supported him and all agreed to organize themselves in
order to avenge what they believed to be a wrong committed against one
of their kin.

At the meeting held in Moro Uling’s house after receipt of the
notice regarding Abdullah’s fate, which meeting took place some days
prior to October 9,1932, Sakam, Imam Tantali, Imam Ibbah, the other
accused and their relatives and followers agree to kill all those who
they believed were responsible for Abdullah’s prosecution and
incarceration, including the members of the constabulary detachment
stationed in Sulu among those who were to be the object of their
vengeance. One meeting was not sufficient to reaffirm their intention.
They later held three others for the same purpose. At one of the last
meetings they said their prayers in order to take courage and Sakam and
Imam Ibbah expressly swore before their Koran to shed their blood for
Abdullah. At each of said meetings, Imam Tantali, Mahamud, Hassan and
Habibula, in addition to said two Moros, led their factions or men.

On the afternoon of October 8, 1932, while Lieutenant Vicente T.
Alagar of the Constabulary was in the house of President Panglima Agga,
he stated, perhaps imprudently, in the presence of Hadji Abdurajak and
Mahamud, followers of said two accused Sakam and Imam Tantali and of
the other Moro chief or leader Moro Imam Ibbah, that he would start the
following day for the barrio of Tayungan which adjoined those of
Puhagan and Bud Kan Asali of the municipal district of Panamao, Sulu,
for the purpose of searching for Moros Naduha and Masihul against whom,
according to him, charges for robbery were pending. Hadji Aodurajak and
Mahamud returned to their barrio with this information for the purpose
of transmitting it to Sakam, Imam Ibbah and to all their men. It was
through this means that the two accused sentenced to death, the other
leaders and the other accused knew the movement of the constabulary
soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Alagar. In fact, on the
morning of the following day, October 9,1932, said lieutenant with
twenty-three well armed soldiers under his command left his station at
Seit Lake, Sulu, for the barrio of Tayungan, not only for the purpose
of searching for Naduha and Masihul but also of patrolling that
vicinity. Upon arriving at the foot of Bud Kan Asali mountain he and
his soldiers stopped for a short rest. As soon as Sakam, Imam Tantali,
Imam Ibbah and their followers learned of the presence of the
constabulary soldiers in their barrio, they gathered their men together
and went to meet the latter. The soldiers soon became aware of the
hostile and defiant attitude of the Moros who were about seventy in
number, for they carried sabres, creeses and spears. Lieutenant Alagar
who undoubtedly wished to avoid an encounter which he had not gone to
look for, addressing said Moros, said loudly: “Here is your friend, the
lieutenant.” Sakam, Imam Ibbah, Imam Tantali, Illing and several of the
accused were among the Moros who approached him. It was Imam Ibbah who
went nearest Lieutenant Alagar and, feigning that he had no intention
to harm said officer or his men, he stretch out his hand to Lieutenant
Alagar and the two shook hands. Lieutenant Alagar took advantage of the
occasion to tell Imam Ibbah and his men to leave the place, to which
Imam Ibbah replied that they would do so if he (Lieutenant Alagar)
ordered his soldiers to put down their arms. This took place after the
Moro leaders, one of whom was the accused Sakam, asked the soldiers if
they wanted to fight, to which Lieutenant Alagar answered in the
negative. In order to show the Moros that he was in fact not hostile to
them, he ordered his soldiers to put down their arms giving them the
command “Order arms.” While the constabulary soldiers were thus
unprepared, Sakam and Imam Tantali and all their men threw themselves
upon the former, Moro Illing casting the first spear wounding
Lieutenant Alagar. During that sudden attack, all the more treacherous
to the constabulary soldiers because it was unexpected, in addition to
Lieutenant Alagar who was covered with spear and bolo wounds and whose
head was severed from his body, both head and body having been found at
different places about eight arm lengths from each other, sergeants
Felipe Dasmariiias and Felix Habalo, corporals Estanislao Ticyican,
Lope Cerena, and Domingo Cardinez, and privates Jose Lawagan, Elias
Eugeriio, Pedro Garcia, Primo Oraye, Aurelio Hij astro, Jose Lagarde,
Marcelino Aguirre and Julio Doctolero lost their lives. The bodies of
the latter soldiers received multiple wounds on different parts
thereof. Captain Leon Angeles of the Constabulary, upon being informed
of the incident, immediately went to the scene of the encounter with
various constabulary soldiers under his command and in the battle
between him and his soldiers, on one side, and the Moros who had
attacked and killed Lieutenant Alagar and his men, on the other, Moros
Mahamud, Julaid, Rahis, Haman, Taraman, Mohamad Ali, Maduh, Ismula,
Illing and about 11 women perished.

Thenceforth the accused Sakam, Imam Tantali and their men, who had
dispersed after their encounter with Captain Angeles and his soldiers,
were not left in peace and the constabulary soldiers and other peace
officers kept mobilizing themselves to capture them and exact from them
a reckoning for their act. Pressed continuously on all sides and seeing
that all their efforts to hide from the constituted authorities and
offer resistance to the agents thereof were in vain, they decided to
surrender one after another with the arms which they took from the
bodies of the constabulary soldiers who died in the encounter of
October 9, 1932. Sakam and Imam Tantali surrendered to Captain Leon
Angeles on May 13,1933, and oh said date of their surrender charges for
sedition were filed against them and the other accused (Exhibit C).
Later, that is, on June 29, 1933, another information was filed against
said accused for multiple murder with which they now stand charged in
this case. Said information, as amended later with the authority of the
lower court, reads as follows:

“That on or about the 9th day of October, 1932, in
the sitio of Tayungan, municipal district of Panamao, Province of Sulu,
Philippine Islands, the herein defendants together with Mahamud,
Julaid, Rajis, Haman, Taraman, Mohamad AH, Maduh, and Ismula who had
already been killed in an encounter with the constabulary soldiers on
the 6th day of September, 1933, and one Habibula who is still at large
and others whose participation has not as yet been properly
ascertained, conspiring and helping one another, forming a band of
about 100 men with Imam Ibbah, Sakam, Hassan and Mahamud as leaders and
all armed with deadly spears, creeses and barongs, with
evident premeditation, craft, treachery, abuse of confidence and
vindictiveness, did then and there criminally; illegally, and
feloniously undertake a sudden, unexpected and combined attack upon a
detachment of constabulary soldiers led by Lieutenant Vicente Alagar of
the Seit Lake station, while said soldiers were patrolling and engaged
in the performance of their official duties, by swooping down and
inflicting upon them numerous wounds and unnecessarily mutilating their
bodies with their deadly sharp bladed and pointed weapons, and as a
result of which said Lieutenant Vicente Alagar and his soldiers Sgt.
Felipe Dasmarinas, Sgt. Felix Habalo, Cpl. Estanislao Ticyican, Cpl.
Lope Cerena, Lance Cpl. Domingo Cardinez, Pvts. Jose Lawagan, Elias
Eugenio, Pedro Garcia, Primo Oraye, Aurelio Hijastro, Jose Lagarde,
Marcelino Aguirre and Julio Doctolero, died instantly, and 14 rifles, 6
shot-guns and 1,000 rounds of ammunitions were wrenched from their
victims and carried away by the accused.”

After due trial, said court rendered the judgment above stated
sentencing Sakam and Imam Tantali to death and their coaccused to reclusion perpetua, with the indemnities, accessories of the law and other pronouncements already stated.

The proven facts, as above stated, undoubtedly constitute the crime
of multiple murder charged in the information. This is true for the
reason that the massacre of the fourteen members of the constabulary
was preconceived, the accused having planned, discussed and maturely
deliberated it several times on different dates and in different
places, it being evident, therefore, that the consummation of said act
was attended by the qualifying circumstance of evident premeditation
(article 248 of the Revised Penal Code). The two aggravating
circumstances of craft and treachery should be taken into consideration
because the accused, in order to better execute their plan of killing
all the constabulary soldiers composing the detachment under the
command of Lieutenant Alagar, induced the latter to believe that if he
ordered his soldiers to put down their arms, they would be friends with
him and his soldiers, and said officer, falling into the snare, very
imprudently gave the command asked for (craft); and because while said
soldiers were thus unprepared to defend themselves and to repel the
aggression which might come from the accused and their followers, the
latter unexpectedly attacked the former giving them no time to use
their arms (treachery), with the result that fourteen of the
twenty-three soldiers composing said detachment lost their lives.

The attorney for said accused Sakam and Imam Tantali contends that
they should be given the benefit of the mitigating circumstance of lack
of instruction and education. We find nothing in the record to show,
even remotely, that said two accused truly lack instruction. On the
contrary, we infer from the evidence that Sakam does not lack
instruction because he knows the Koran as it was before this book that
he swore vengeance on those responsible for Abdullah’s prosecution and
incarceration and it was he who, with Imam Ibbah and other Moro
leaders, initiated the movement for vengeance, swearing to shed his
blood for his nephew after he had suitably organized his men. Neither
should the accused Imam Tantali be given the benefit of said mitigating
circumstance because he did not prove that he is illiterate or that he
lacks instruction. Whoever pleads a mitigating circumstance favorable
to his defense should prove it by means of competent evidence, and Imam
Tantali did not do so even by his own testimony.

It has been suggested in the discussion of this case that perhaps
the mitigating circumstance of having surrendered to the authorities
might be taken into consideration in favor of said two accused. The
evidence, however, does not show that their surrender was voluntary.
What happened was that they surrendered because, as was stated, they
considered it impossible to live in hostility and resistance to the
constituted authorities and their agents in view of the fact that said
authorities had neither given them rest nor left them in peace for a
moment. In order that the mitigating circumstance of voluntary
surrender may be taken into consideration in favor of an accused, it is
necessary that the same be spontaneous in such manner that it shows the
intent of said accused to surrender unconditionally to the authorities,
either because he acknowledges his guilt or because he wishes to save
them the trouble and expense necessarily incurred in his search and
capture.

So therefore, considering the proven facts from the” point of view
that the commission of the crime of multiple murder was attended by
said two aggravating circumstances without any mitigating circumstance
to offset them, the penalty which should be imposed upon said two
accused would inevitably appear to be death. All the members of this
court are of this opinion as regards the accused Sakam, but the same
unanimity was lacking as regards the accused Imam Tantali, for the
reason that Sakam was the spirit behind the movement in union with Imam
Ibbah and three others who are already dead, and Imam Tantali was but a
follower or henchman of the five, in which case the penalty for him
should not be death but only reclusion perpetua because his
responsibility is only that of the other accused upon whom the lower
court imposed said lower penalty. In view whereof, only said lower
penalty should be imposed upon him in conformity with the provisions of
section 138 of the Revised Administrative Code and of article 47 of the
Revised Penal Code.

Wherefore, the sentence of the lower court is affirmed in so far as
it imposes the death penalty on the accused Sakam; and as to the
accused Imam Tantali, due to the court’s lack of unanimity, he is
sentenced to reclusion perpetua. Both accused are likewise
sentenced to the accessory penalties provided by law and jointly and
severally with the seventeen Moros with whom they were charged, to
indemnify the heirs of each of their fourteen victims, Lieutenant
Vicente Alagar, sergeants Felipe Dasmarin’as and Felix Habalo,
corporals Estanislao Ticyiean, Lope Cerena and Domingo Cardinez, and
privates Jose Lawagan, Elias Eugenio, Pedro Garcia, Primo Oraye,
Aurelio Hijastro, Jose Lagarde, Marcelino Aguirre and Julio Doctolero,
in the sum of P1,000; and it is ordered that in the execution of the
death penalty imposed upon the accused Sakam, the provisions of
articles 81, 82 and 84 of the Revised Penal Code be strictly complied
with, the lower court fixing first the date of said execution, with
costs de oficia. So ordered.

Avancena, C. J., Street, Malcolm, Villa-Real, Abaci Santos, Hull, Vickers, Imperial, Butte, Goddard, and Diaz, JJ. concur