CONSTANCIO ORDONIO, PETITIONER, VS. THE HON. COURT OF APPEALS AND PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, RESPONDENTS.

In an information dated July 12,
1982 before the
Court of First Instance of Negros Oriental, Constancio Ordonio was indicted
of the crime of cattle rustling committed as follows:

That sometimes in the evening of Tuesday, January 5, 1982, at Bgy.
Omanod, Sta. Catalina, Negros
Oriental, and within the preliminary jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the
above-named accused, with the intent of gain, did then and there willfully,
unlawfully and feloniously took, steal, and carry away one (1) male cow, color
red and white (cabang) highbreed,
more or less eleven months old, without the knowledge and consent of the owner
Mr. Anastacio Pajunar.

That as a result thereof, the victim Anastacio
Pajunar was damaged and prejudiced in the amount of
SEVEN HUNDRED PESOS (P700.00), Philippine Currency, as the estimated cost and
value of the stolen cow.

With damages.

Contrary to law.^[1]

As found by the trial
court and affirmed by the Court of Appeals, the attendant circumstances which
precipitated this petition for review on certiorari are clear.

A study of this case showed that on January 6, 1982, Anastacio Pajunar discovered the loss of his eleven month old cow
(which he pastured 100 meters from his house on January 5, 1982). 
He searched for it and asked his not too distant neighbor, Constancio Ordonio, whether he
had seen it.  Ordonio
allegedly denied having seen it, and when Pajunar
heard the mooing of a cow, Ordonio was quick to say
that was the cow he was tending. 
However, Pajunar followed the direction of the
sound and discovered that it was his own cow. 
Ordonio insisted that it was his brother’s cow
which was entrusted to him.  So Pajunar tied it near Ordonio’s
house and left to report the matter to the authorities.

Pajunar went to Barangay
Captain Leopoldo Enumerabellon
who gave him a note for the PC.  Two PC
soldiers accompanied him and went with him to the house of Barrio Councilman
Leonardo Pajaron, and together they went to Ordonio’s place.  He
also took with him his milking cow and upon arrival at Ordonio’s
place, the calf ran and approached its mother. 
The PC soldiers told the wife that since Ordonio
was not around, the calf had to be entrusted to the barrio official and the
wife consented.  The following day, the 7th of January, 1982, they met
with sub-barangay captain Enumerabellon.  When asked why he, Ordonio
was claiming the cow, his answer was that it was his brother’s cow entrusted to
him.  But Ordonio’s
wife told her husband thus, “Ne, let’s just give
the cow to the real owner and we will pay the damages.”^[2]

In his defense, the
accused, Constancio
Ordonio, presented a different version.

x x x Ordonio
declared that on January 6, 1982, at about 6:00 o’clock A.M., Santiago Oyhoc reported to him that he saw a cow in his mongo and
corn farm.  Ordonio
just wanted to drive the cow out of his farm but Oyhoc
suggested it be caught so that it would not return.  So, with a rope he caught the cow and tied it
near his house.  He claimed that he
recognized the cow to be Pajunar’s and even left instructions to his wife to return
it to Pajunar should be come for it.  In the meantime, he went to Calanian about 9 kilometers from his house to sell
corn.  When he returned in the evening,
he learned from his wife that they were accused of stealing the cow and that
the two PC soldiers who came together with Pajunar
and Pajaron took
the cow to place it in the custody of Enumerabellon.  That very evening too, he got a letter from Enumerabellon instructing him to go to his place.  So that on the 7th, he and his wife went to
see Enumerabellon. 
At Enumerabellon’s house were also the
complainant, Anastacio Pajunar,
barrio councilman Pajaron and Pajunar’s
son.  An investigation was conducted with
Ordonio and his wife saying that Pajunar
owned the cow, so it was given back to Pajunar who
brought it home.^[3]

In a decision dated January
26, 1988, the trial
court* rendered this judgment of conviction:

IN VIEW OF THE FOREGOING, it is the opinion of this Court and so
holds that the prosecution has proven beyond the shadow and doubt the guilt of
accused and finds said accused guilty of the crime of Violation of Presidential
Decree No. 533, otherwise known as the Anti-Cattle Rustling Law of 1974.  There being no mitigating nor aggravating circumstances and applying the
Indeterminate Sentence Law, accused Constancio Ordonio should be punished with a penalty next lower by one
(1) degree than that provided for the
crime committed and therefore accused Constancio Ordonio should be sentenced to suffer the penalty of
imprisonment ranging from four (4) years, two (2) months and one (1) day as
minimum to six (6) years as maximum of prision
correccional.

SO ORDERED.^[4]

Upon motion of the
accused on the ground of newly discovered evidence, and against the vigorous
objection of the prosecution, the trial court conducted a new trial.  This time,
the defense presented Pastor Banquerigo, an
81-yeard-old barrio entertainer, who substantially corroborated the account of Constancio Ordonio.  Pastor swore that on January
6, 1982, he saw Constancio take possession of a cow and tie it near his
house where it could be easily seen by passersby.

Unconvinced, the trial court in the Order dated August 11, 1988^[5]
maintained its judgment of conviction, reasoning that upon consideration of the
testimony of Pastor Banquerigo, it found no urgent
reason to disturb its decision dated January
26, 1988.

The accused took exception to the judgment of the trial court and interposed an appeal to the
Court of Appeals, imputing the following errors:^[6]

a) The lower court erred in presuming that the elements of the
crime are obtaining in the case
at bar;

b) The court a quo erred to bank merely on the weakness of the
evidence of the accused, while it failed, of its own evidence, to prove the
guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt;

c) The lower court overlooked certain facts of substance and value
that, if considered, would affect the outcome of the case, and the decision is based on misapprehension of facts.

Unimpressed, the Court of Appeals* affirmed
in toto the decision of the trial court,^[7]
and subsequently denied the accused’s motion for
reconsideration through a Resolution dated November 13, 1989.

The accused now comes before this Court, reiterating all the
three errors he assigned to the trial court and the Court of Appeals.

The accused faults the
decision of the respondent court for its misapprehension of facts.  The actual taking of the calf was not proven
by the prosecution, he points out.  That
the complainant found the calf tied in the appellant’s upland property does not
make him a cattle rustler.  Nor does his
supposed failure and/or refusal to tell the complainant where the cow was even
if he (the accused) knew where it was. 
Actually, the accused claims, he was at that time in Calanian–nine
kilometers from Sta. Catalina–how could the complainant have asked him about
his calf?  And the mere stepping on the
rope (granting this is true) to which the calf was tied when complainant towed
it does not constitute theft of the calf either.  Because if the accused had intended to steal
it why would he tie it near his house?

The accused asserts that
the animal had gone astray and consequently destroyed his plants.  To prevent further damage to the plants he
caught it and tied it near his house.  He
thought it burdensome to report the matter to the Barangay
Captain or bring the calf to him.  The
complainant should not kick up a storm over the matter as he was able to
recover his calf anyway.

Besides, the accused
alleges that the complainant pressed charges against him out of spite as he and
the complainant were litigants in a land dispute.  The complainant tried to
“blackmail” him into abandoning the civil case in exchange for his
dropping of this case.  But he (the
accused) refused, so the complainant proceeded to file this case in the trial
court.

The petition must fail.

We note at the outset that in petitions under Rule 45 of the
Rules of Court like this case, review is limited only to errors of law
committed by the Court of Appeals. 
Factual findings of the trial court which are especially confirmed by
the Court of Appeals are conclusive and can no longer be reviewed.^[8]
Of course, there are well-defined exceptions, for instance, misapprehension of
facts^[9]
which the accused now posits.

The records however show that the respondent court, as well as
the trial court, committed no such misapprehension of facts.

Significantly, the lower courts did not anchor the conviction of
the appellant on what he alleges to have resulted in a misapprehension of
facts.  The lower courts did not convict
the appellant on the basis of the missing calf’s having been found tied in the accused’s premises nor on his failure and/or refusal to tell the owner the whereabouts of the
calf, nor on the accused’s stepping on the rope to
which the “lost” calf was tied when the complainant was towing it.  Rather, the lower courts convicted him on the
basis of his actuations when the lost calf was found in his possession.  The lower courts noted the following:

1.            When complainant
discovered the loss of his calf, he inquired from petitioner whether he has
seen the calf but the latter denied having seen it.^[10]

2.            When complainant
queried the whereabouts of the calf for the second time, accused anew denied
having seen it.^[11]

3.            When complainant
eventually located the calf in accused estate, the latter refused to give the
calf claiming it belonged to his brother, Agustin.^[12]

4.            Complainant
needed the assistance of a barangay official and two
PC soldiers to dispossess accused of that calf and eventually placed it in the
custody of the Barangay Captain.^[13]

5.            At the Barangay Captain’s residence accused still insisted that
the calf belonged to his brother, Agustin.^[14]

The accused-petitioner
had the temerity to act thus even if the calf did not belong to him, but to the
complainant as he admitted before the trial court.  But independent of the admission by the
accused, complainant ownership of the calf is further fortified with this one
important circumstance.  When complainant
went to accused’s house, accompanied by barangay councilman, Pajunar, and
two PC soldiers, the milking cow was brought along.  Upon arrival, the PC soldiers let
loose the calf and the latter immediately ran to the milking cow to suck on its
milk.  Such conduct of the calf manifests
all the signs of the young whether human or not, on finding a lost mother.^[15]

Section 2 (c) of P.D. 533, defines cattle-rustling as follows:

SEC. 2 (c).  Cattle rustling
is taking away by any means, methods or schemes, without the consent of the
owner/raiser, of any of the above mentioned animals whether or not for profit
or gain, or whether committed with or without violence against or intimidation
of any person or force upon things.  It
includes the killing of large cattle,
or taking its meat or hide without the consent of the owner/raiser.

Note the phraseology of the
provision–“taking away by any means, methods or schemes.” Thus, intent to
gain may be inferred from the deliberate failure to deliver the lost property
to the proper person, the finder knowing that the property does not belong to
him.^[16]
In this case, the several circumstances enumerated earlier constitute an
unbroken chain of events which leads to one fair and reasonable
conclusion–which is that the accused indeed took the calf with the intent to
appropriate it.^[17]
To recapitulate, the stubborn insistence of the accused that the missing calf
belonged to his brother, Agustin, knowing fully
well that it belonged to the complainant (as he later admitted in his answers
to questions of the trial court), in essence, is cattle rustling.

In discrediting the
evidence of the defense, we quote with approval the decision of the Court of
Appeals.

The evidence is clear that appellant twice denied knowledge of the
calf when private complainant asked him if he has seen the missing calf.  And when
the calf was finally located by the private complainant, the appellant
stopped the private complainant from bringing the calf home alleging that the calf belongs to his brother
Agustin which was entrusted to his care. 
However, after realizing that his claim can no longer hold water because
private complainant has proved his ownership of the calf in question, appellant
now avers in his testimony that he caught the calf because it was eating and
destroying his plants and it was his intention to return the calf to the owner.  Appellant reasoned out further that he was
not in his house when private complainant went there but that it was only his
wife who was at home and with whom the private complainant talked.  We are not the least convinced of appellant’s
stand.  To US, such a posture now being
taken by the appellant is nothing but a last
and desperate attempt to exculpate himself from liability.^[18]

xxx                            xxx                               xxx

[And] if it is true likewise that it was appellant’s wife only with
whom private complainant talked on that day of January 6, 1982 when the latter
was looking for his missing calf because the appellant was allegedly not at
home, how come that appellant’s wife was not even presented by appellant as a
witness to rebut at least the clear testimony of private complainant that it
was the appellant he talked with that day?^[19]

Our thorough review of the case convinces us of the guilt of the
appellant beyond reasonable doubt, hence the respondent court did not commit
any reversible error in affirming the decision of the trial court.

WHEREFORE, the decision of the respondent Court of
Appeals, dated August 9, 1989,
and its Resolution, dated November
13, 1989, are AFFIRMED.  No
costs.

SO ORDERED.

Melencio-Herrera, (Chairman), Paras, Padilla, and Regalado, JJ., concur.

^[1]
Original Record, 4.

^[2]
Comment, 2-3; rollo,
48-49.

^[3]
Original record, 238-239.

* Penned by Judge Jesus L. Tabilon, RTC Branch
42, Dumaguete City.

^[4]
Ibid., 242.

^[5]
Ibid., 294.

^[6]
See rollo,
11-12.

* Penned by Justice Felipe B. Kalalo with the
concurrence of Associate Justices Ricardo L. Pronove,
Jr. and Luis L. Victor, Eleventh Division.

^[7]
Rollo, 10-17.

^[8]
Rule 45 Rules of Court; Zubiri vs. Quijano, 74
Phil. 47; Gerio vs. Gerio,
71 Phil. 106; Garcia de Ramos vs. Yatco, 71
Phil. 178; Nazareno vs. Magwagi, 71 Phil. 101; Onglengco vs. Ozaeta, et al., 70 Phil. 43; Hodges vs. People, 68
Phil. 178; Evangelista and Co. vs. Abad
Santos, L-31684, June 28, 1973; Perido vs. Perido, L-28248, March 12, 1975.

^[9]
Cruz vs. Sosing,
L-4875, November 27, 1953.

^[10]
TSN, September 5, 1985, 45.

^[11]
Ibid., 46.

^[12]
Ibid., 48, TSN, October 29,
1985, 24.

^[13]
Ibid., 52.

^[14]
Ibid., 38, 54, TSN, November 21, 1985, 28.

^[15]
U.S. vs. Tegrado,
36 Phil. 789 (1917).

^[16]
People vs. Rodrigo, L-18507, March
31, 1966, 16 SCRA
475.

^[17]
People vs. Charly
Ganahon, G.R. Nos. 74670-74, April
30, 1991.

^[18]
Rollo, 13-14.

^[19]
Ibid., 15.