Ladines vs. People Case Digest

Pedro Ladines vs. People of the Philippines and Edwin De Ramon

G.R. No. 167333. January 11, 2016

BERSAMIN, J.:

Doctrine:

To impose the highest within a period of the imposable penalty without specifying the justification for doing so is an error on the part of the trial court that should be corrected on appeal. In default of such justification, the penalty to be imposed is the lowest of the period.

Facts:

While Prosecution witnesses Philip de Ramon and Mario Lasala, along with victim Erwin de Ramon (Erwin), were watching the dance held during the June 12, 1993 Grand Alumni Homecoming of the Bulabog Elementary School in Sorsogon, Sorsogon, the petitioner and Licup appeared and passed by them. The petitioner suddenly and without warning approached and stabbed Erwin below the navel with a machete. The petitioner then left after delivering the blow. At that juncture, Licup also mounted his attack against Erwin but the latter evaded the blow by stepping back. Erwin pulled out the machete from his body and wielded it against Licup, whom he hit in the chest. Licup pursued but could not catch up with Erwin because they both eventually fell down. Erwin was rushed to the hospital where he succumbed.

Dr. Myrna Listanco, who performed the post-mortem examination on the cadaver of Erwin, attested that the victim had sustained two stab wounds on the body, one in the chest and the other in the abdomen. She opined that one or two assailants had probably inflicted the injuries with the use of two distinct weapons; and that the chest wound could have been caused by a sharp instrument, like a sharpened screwdriver, while the abdominal injury could have been from a sharp bladed instrument like a knife.

In his defense, the petitioner tendered alibi and denial. He recounted that at the time in question, he was in the Bulabog Elementary School compound along with his wife and their minor child; that they did not enter the dance hall because there was trouble that had caused the people to scamper; that they had then gone home; that he had learned about the stabbing incident involving Erwin on their way home from Barangay Tanod Virgilio de Ramon who informed him that Licup and Erwin had stabbed each other; and that Prosecution witnesses Philip and Lasala harbored ill-will towards him by reason of his having lodged a complaint in the barangay against them for stealing coconuts from his property.

The petitioner presented Angeles Jasareno and Arnulfo Palencia to corroborate his denial. Jasareno and Palencia testified that at the time in question they were in the Bulabog Elementary School, together with the petitioner, the latter's wife and their minor daughter; that while they were watching the dance, a quarrel had transpired but they did not know who had been involved.

On August 12, 1993, an information was filed in the RTC charging the petitioner and one Herman Licup with homicide.

On February 10, 2003, the RTC pronounced the petitioner guilty as charged, decreeing:

WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Court finds accused Pedro Ladines guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of Homicide, defined and penalized under Article 249 of the Revised Penal Code, sans any mitigating circumstances and applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, accused Pedro Ladines is hereby sentenced to suffer an imprisonment of from Ten (10) years and One (1) day of prision mayor as minimum to 17 years and 4 months of reclusion temporal as maximum and to pay the sum of P50,000.00 as civil indemnity without subsidiary imprisonment [in] case of insolvency and [to] pay the costs.

On appeal, the CA affirmed the conviction. Petitioner filed an appeal insisting that the CA committed reversible error in affirming his conviction despite the admission of Licup immediately after the incident that he had stabbed the victim; and that the res gestae statement of Licup constituted newly-discovered evidence that created a reasonable doubt as to the petitioner's guilt.

Issues:

1. Whether the res gestae statement of Licup constitutes newly-discovered evidence that would create a reasonable doubt as to the petitioner's guilt.
2. Whether the RTC imposed the proper penalty.
3. Whether the lower court's limitation of the civil liability to civil indemnity of only P50,000.00 is correct.

Rulings:

1. No, the res gestae statement of Licup did not constitute newly-discovered evidence that created a reasonable doubt as to the petitioner's guilt. We point out that the concept of newly-discovered evidence is applicable only when a litigant seeks a new trial or the re-opening of the case in the trial court. Seldom is the concept appropriate on appeal, particularly one before the Court.

Furthermore, the Court has issued guidelines designed to balance the need of persons charged with crimes to afford to them the fullest opportunity to establish their defenses, on the one hand, and the public interest in ensuring a smooth, efficient and fair administration of criminal justice, on the other. The first guideline is to restrict the concept of newly-discovered evidence to only such evidence that can satisfy the following requisites, namely: (1) the evidence was discovered after trial; (2) such evidence could not have been discovered and produced at the trial even with the exercise of reasonable diligence; (3) the evidence is material, not merely cumulative, corroborative, or impeaching; and (4) the evidence is of such weight that it would probably change the judgment if admitted. (Emphasis is mine).

We agree with the State that the proposed evidence of the petitioner was not newly-discovered because the first two requisites were not present. The petitioner, by his exercise of reasonable diligence, could have sooner discovered and easily produced the proposed evidence during the trial by obtaining a certified copy of the police blotter that contained the alleged res gestae declaration of Licup and the relevant documents and testimonies of other key witnesses to substantiate his denial of criminal responsibility.

2. We declare that the lower courts could not impose 17 years and four months of the medium period of reclusion temporal, which was the ceiling of the medium period of reclusion temporal, as the maximum of the indeterminate penalty without specifying the justification for so imposing. They thereby ignored that although Article 64 of the Revised Penal Code, which has set the rules "for the application of penalties which contain three periods," requires under its first rule that the courts should impose the penalty prescribed by law in the medium period should there be neither aggravating nor mitigating circumstances, its seventh rule expressly demands that "[w]ithin the limits of each period, the courts shall determine the extent of the penalty according to the number and nature of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances and. the greater or lesser extent of the evil produced by the crime." By not specifying the justification for imposing the ceiling of the period of the imposable penalty, the fixing of the indeterminate sentence became arbitrary, or whimsical, or capricious. In the absence of the specification, the maximum of the indeterminate sentence for the petitioner should be the lowest of the medium period of reclusion temporal, which is 14 years, eight months and one day of reclusion temporal.

3. The limitation was a plain error that we must correct. Moral damages and civil indemnity are always granted in homicide, it being assumed by the law that the loss of human life absolutely brings moral and spiritual losses as well as a definite loss. Moral damages and civil indemnity require neither pleading nor evidence simply because death through crime always occasions moral sufferings on the part of the victim's heirs. The civil indemnity and moral damages are fixed at P75,000.00 each because homicide was a gross crime.

WHEREFORE, the Court AFFIRMS the decision promulgated on October 22, 2004 subject to the MODIFICATION that: (a) the INDETERMINATE SENTENCE of petitioner PEDRO LADINES is 10 years and one day of prision mayor, as minimum, to 14 years, eight months and one day of the medium period of reclusion temporal, as maximum; and (b) the petitioner shall pay to the heirs of the victim Erwin de Ramon: (1) civil indemnity and moral damages of P75,000.00 each; (2) temperate damages of P25,000.00; (c) interest of 6% per annum on all items of the civil liability computed from the date of the finality of this judgment until they are fully paid; and (d) the costs of suit.