356 Phil. 923
PUNO, J.:
The Informations against accused read:When arraigned, accused pled not guilty. Trial ensued.
In Criminal Case No. 11109
"That on or about the 6th day of May, 1993, in the evening, at Sitio Nagbaril, Barangay Bintuan, Municipality of Coron, Province of Palawan, Philippines, and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the said accused, with evident premeditation and treachery, while armed with a firearm and with intent to kill, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously shoot with his firearm, to wit: an armalite rifle, one SONNY SOTTO, hitting him on the vital part of his body and inflicting upon him a gunshot wound on the left side of his chest, thru and thru, which injury was the direct and immediate cause of his instantaneous death. (emphasis ours)
"CONTRARY TO LAW and committed with aggravating circumstance of treachery."
In Criminal Case No. 11644
"That on or about the 6th day of May, 1993, and prior thereto, at Sitio Nagbaril, Barangay Bintuan, Municipality of Coron, Province of Palawan, Philippines, and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the said accused did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously have in his possession, custody and control, one armalite rifle with Serial No. 9035914 and ammunitions, without any license or permit to possess the same and that this firearm was used in shooting to death one SONNY SOTTO in a case of Murder filed with the RTC of Palawan and Puerto Princesa City, docketed as Criminal Case No. 11109 and that this crime have no relation or (is not) in furtherance of the crime of rebellion or subversion. (emphasis ours)
"CONTRARY TO LAW."
In this appeal, appellant contends:We affirm the judgment of conviction with modification.
"THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN APPRECIATING THE QUALIFYING CIRCUMSTANCE OF TREACHERY AS ATTENDING THE COMMISSION OF THE CRIME ALLEGED AND IN HOLDING ACCUSED-APPELLANT GUILTY OF MURDER IN THE KILLING OF SONNY SOTTO."
"SEC. 1. Unlawful Manufacture, Sale, Acquisition, Disposition or Possession of Firearms, Ammunition or Instruments Used or Intended to be Used in the Manufacture of Firearms or Ammunition.- The penalty of reclusion temporal in its maximum period to reclusion perpetua shall be imposed upon any person who shall unlawfully manufacture, deal in, acquire, dispose or possess any firearm, part of firearm, ammunition of machinery, tool or instrument used or intended to be used in the manufacture of any firearm or ammunition.Republic Act No. 8294, amended P.D. No. 1866, by reducing the penalties for simple and aggravated forms of illegal possession of firearms.[12] The law now provides:
If homicide or murder is committed with the use of an unlicensed firearm, the penalty of death shall be imposed." (emphasis ours)
"Section 1. Unlawful Manufacture, Sale, Acquisition, Disposition or Possession of Firearms or Ammunition or Instruments Used or Intended to be Used in the Manufacture of Firearms or Ammunition.- The penalty of prision correccional in its maximum period and a fine of not less than Fifteen thousand pesos (P15,000.00) shall be imposed upon any person who shall unlawfully manufacture, deal in, acquire, dispose, or possess any low powered firearm such as rimfire handgun, .380 or .32 and other firearm of similar firepower, ammunition, or machinery, tool or instrument used or intended to be used in the manufacture of any firearm or ammunition: Provided, That no other crime was committed.Clearly, the penalty for illegal possession of high powered firearm is prision mayor in its minimum period and a fine of P30,000.00. In case homicide or murder is committed with the use of unlicensed firearm, such use of unlicensed firearm shall be merely considered as an aggravating circumstance.
"The penalty of prision mayor in its minimum period and a fine of Thirty thousand pesos (P30,000.00) shall be imposed if the firearm is classified as high powered firearm which includes those with bores bigger in diameter than .38 caliber and 9 millimeter such as caliber .40, .41, .45 and also lesser caliber firearms but considered powerful such as caliber .357 and caliber .22 center-fire magnum and other firearms with firing capability of full automatic and by burst of two or three: Provided, however, That no other crime was committed by the person arrested.
"If homicide or murder is committed with the use of unlicensed firearm, such use of an unlicensed firearm shall be considered as an aggravating circumstance. (emphasis ours)
x x x x x x x x x
"Sec. 5. Coverage of the Term Unlicensed Firearm. - The term unlicensed firearm shall include:
1) firearms with expired license, or
2) unauthorized use of licensed firearm in the commission of the crime."
"Since obviously, the favorable provisions of Republic Act 7659 could neither have been involved or invoked in the present case, a corollary question would be whether this court, at the present stage, can sua sponte apply the provisions of Article 22 to reduce the penalty to be imposed on appellant. That issue has likewise been resolved in the cited case of People vs. Moran, et al., ante., thus:Thus, in the recent case of People vs. Molina, et al . ,[15] the Court (En Banc) gave retroactive application to R.A. No. 8294 considering that, under the new law, the offenses of murder and illegal use or possession of firearm are integrated into a single offense. We held:
`x x x. The plain precept contained in article 22 of the Penal Code, declaring the retroactivity of penal laws in so far as they are favorable to persons accused of a felony, would be useless and nugatory if the courts of justice were not under obligation to fulfill such duty, irrespective of whether or not the accused has applied for it, just as would also all provisions relating to the prescription of the crime and the penalty.'
If the judgment which could be affected and modified by the reduced penalties provided in Republic Act No. 7659 has already become final and executory or the accused is serving sentence thereunder, then practice, procedure and pragmatic consideration would warrant and necessitate the matter being brought to the judicial authorities for relief under a writ of habeas corpus." (footnote omitted)
"x x x. The intent of Congress to treat as a single offense he illegal possession of firearm and the commission of murder or homicide with the use of such unlicensed firearm is clear from the following deliberations of the Senate during the process of amending Senate Bill No. 1148:In line with our decision in People vs. Molina, the appellant is liable only for murder under the Revised Penal Code. Further, in view of amendments introduced by R.A. No. 8294 to P.D. No. 1866, the use of the unlicensed firearm in killing the victim, Sonny Sotto, is no longer considered as a separate offense, instead, it is considered as an aggravating circumstance.[16] However, it will not affect the penalty of reclusion perpetua imposed against the appellant.[17]
'Senator Drilon. On line 18, we propose to retain the original provision of law which says, 'If homicide or murder is committed with the use of the unlicensed firearm.' And in order that we can shorten the paragraph, we would suggest and move that the use of the unlicensed firearm be considered as an aggravating circumstance rather than imposing another period which may not be in consonance with the Revised Penal Code.
'So that (if) I may read the paragraph in order that it can be understood, may I propose an amendment to lines 18 to 22 to read as follows: 'If homicide or murder is committed with the use of unlicensed firearm, SUCH USE OF AN UNLICENSED FIREARM SHALL BE CONSIDERED AS AN AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCE.'
x x x x x x x x x
'Senator Santiago. Mr. President.
'The President. With the permission of the two gentlemen, Senator Santiago is recognized.
'Senator Santiago. Will the principal author allow me as coauthor to take the [f]loor to explain, for the information of our colleagues, the stand taken by the Supreme Court on the question of whether aggravated illegal possession is a complex or a compound offense. May I have the [f]loor ?
'Senator Revilla. Yes, Mr. President.
'Senator Santiago. Thank You.
'In 1995, the Supreme Court held that when the crime of killing another person is committed with the use of an unlicensed firearm, the ruling in the case of People vs. Barros was that the crime should only be illegal possession of firearm in its aggravated form. But in the later case, in May 1996, in the case of People vs. Evangelista, the court apparently took another position and ruled that when a person is killed with the use of an unlicensed firearm, it is possible to file two separate information[s] -- one for murder and one for illegal possession of firearms.
'In other words, in two successive years, the Supreme Court issued two different ways of treating the problem. The first is to treat it as one crime alone in the aggravated form, and the second is to treat it as two separate crimes.
'So at this point, the Senate has a choice on wether we shall follow the 1995 or the 1996 ruling. The proposal of the gentleman, as a proposed amendment, is to use the 1995 ruling and to consider the offense but in an aggravated form. That could be acceptable also to this coauthor.
'The Presiding Officer [Sen. Flavier.] So, do I take it that the amendment is accepted ?
'Senator Revilla. Yes, it is accepted, Mr. President.
'The Presiding Officer [Sen. Flavier.] Thank you. Is there any objection to the amendment? [Silence] There being none, the amendment is approved.'
"Although the explanation of the legal implication of the Drilon amendment may not have been very precise, such modification, as approved and carried in the final version enacted as RA 8294, is unequivocal in language and meaning. The use of an unlicensed firearm in a killing is now merely an aggravating circumstance in the crime of murder or homicide. This is clear from the very wordings of the third paragraph of Section 1 of RA 8294, which reads:
'If homicide or murder is committed with the use of an unlicensed firearm, such use of an unlicensed firearm shall be considered as an aggravating circumstance.'
"Furthermore, the preceding paragraphs, also in Section 1, state that the penalties for illegal possession of firearms shall be imposed 'provided that no other crime is committed.' In other words, where murder or homicide was committed, the separate penalty for illegal possession shall no longer be meted out since it becomes merely a special aggravating circumstance.
"This statutory amendment may have been an offshoot of our remarks in People vs. Tac-an and People vs. Quijada.
'Neither is the second paragraph of Section 1 meant to punish homicide or murder with death if either crime is committed with the use of an unlicensed firearm, i.e., to consider such use merely as a qualifying circumstance and not as an offense. That could not have been the intention of the lawmaker because the term penalty for illegal possession of firearm and not the penalty for homicide or murder. We explicitly stated in Tac-an:
'There is no law which renders the use of an unlicensed firearm as an aggravating circumstance in homicide or murder. Under an information charging homicide or murder, the fact that the death weapon was an unlicensed firearm cannot be used to increase the penalty for the second offense of homicide or murder to death (or reclusion perpetua under the 1987 Constitution). The essential point is that the unlicensed character or condition of the instrument used in destroying human life or committing some other crime, is not included in the inventory of aggravating circumstances set out in Article 14 of the Revised Penal Code.
'A law may, of course, be enacted making the use of an unlicensed firearm as a qualifying circumstance.'