532 Phil. 193
QUISUMBING, J.:
That on the 3rd day of September, 1994 at around 10:30 o'clock (sic) in the evening at the Amihan Hotel and Restaurant at the Poblacion, Municipality of Baler, Province of Aurora, Philippines, the said accused, did then and there, wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously carry and have in his possession and under his custody and control one (1) .38 caliber Smith and Wesson (Paltic) Revolver together with four (4) live ammunitions without first having secured the necessary license and permit to carry said firearm from the proper authorities.The information in Criminal Case No. 1933 charged him with frustrated homicide, committed as follows:
CONTRARY TO LAW.[5]
That on the 3rd day of September, 1994, at around 10:30 o'clock (sic) in the evening at the Amihan Hotel and Restaurant at the Poblacion, Municipality of Baler, Province of Aurora, Philippines, the said accused, with intent to kill, did then and there wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously attack, assault and use personal violence upon the person of one Raul Hermo, by then and there shooting the latter at his forehead with a .38 caliber revolver thereby inflicting upon him serious physical injuries, thus performing all the acts of execution which should have produced the crime of homicide as a consequence, but nevertheless did not produce it by reason of causes independent of his will, that is by the timely and able medical assistance rendered to said Raul Hermo which prevented his death.Upon arraignment, Amarillo pleaded not guilty.[7] Thereafter, joint trial ensued.[8]
CONTRARY TO LAW.[6]
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Court
- In Criminal Case No. 1932 finds Fidel Amarillo, Jr. guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of illegal possession of firearm and ammunition defined and penalized under P.D. 1866 as amended by R.A. 8294, and considering the presence of the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender without any aggravating circumstance to offset the same, hereby sentences him to suffer an indeterminate penalty of ten (10) years and one (1) day of prision mayor as minimum to seventeen (17) years and four (4) months and one (1) day of reclusion temporal as maximum with all the accessory penalties provided by law; and to pay the cost;
- In Criminal Case No. 1933, the Court likewise finds accused Fidel Amarillo, Jr. guilty beyond reasonable doubt of frustrated homicide and taking into consideration the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender, without any aggravating circumstance to offset the same, hereby sentences him to suffer an indeterminate penalty of four (4) years and two (2) months of prision correccional as minimum to eight (8) years of prision mayor as maximum with all the accessory penalties provided by law; to indemnify the offended party Raul S. Hermo the sum of P338,317.45 as civil indemnity; and to pay the costs.
In both cases, the accused shall be credited in the service of his sentence with the full time during which he has undergone preventive imprisonment, if he agreed voluntarily to abide by the same disciplinary rules imposed upon convicted prisoners; otherwise with four-fifths thereof.Amarillo appealed to the Court of Appeals.[10] He faulted the trial court for (1) convicting him although the prosecution failed to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt of the crimes of frustrated homicide and illegal possession of firearm; and (2) acting with gross and manifest bias and partiality.
SO ORDERED.[9]
WHEREFORE, in the light of the foregoing, the Decision in Criminal Case No. 1933 for frustrated homicide is hereby MODIFIED to reflect that accused-appellant is hereby sentenced, pursuant to the Indeterminate Sentence Law and Section 1 of R.A. No. 8294 which amended P.D. No. 1866, and taking into consideration the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender, to suffer an indeterminate penalty of eight (8) years, eight (8) months and one (1) day of prision mayor as minimum to nine (9) years and four (4) months of prision mayor as maximum. Said Decision in other respects not inconsistent herewith is AFFIRMED.Hence, the instant petition raising the following issues:
The Decision in Criminal Case No. 1932 for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition is SET ASIDE, and accused-appellant is ACQUITTED thereof.
SO ORDERED.[11]
In the main, the issues boil down to (1) whether the judge a quo is disqualified under Section 1, Rule 137 of the Rules of Court to hear and decide the case after he has acted as counsel de oficio during Amarillo's arraignment; and (2) whether there is sufficient evidence to sustain Amarillo's conviction of frustrated homicide.
- WHETHER OR NOT THE JUDGE A QUO IS LEGALLY DISQUALIFIED TO HEAR THE CASE AGAINST THE ACCUSED.
- WHETHER OR NOT THE . . . PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE JUDGE A QUO AMOUNTED TO A MISTRIAL RESULTING IN A GROSS MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE.
- WHETHER OR NOT PETITIONER'S BASIC CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT ... TO A FAIR AND IMPARTIAL TRIBUNAL WAS VIOLATED.
- WHETHER OR NOT THE JUDGE A QUO ACTED WITH THE COLD NEUTRALITY OF AN IMPARTIAL JUDGE.
- WHETHER OR NOT THE JUDGE A QUO IS GUILTY OF GROSS IGNORANCE OF THE LAW.
- WHETHER OR NOT THE PROSECUTION PROVED THE GUILT OF PETITIONER BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT.[12]
SECTION 1. Disqualification of judges. -- No judge or judicial officer shall sit in any case in which he, or his wife or child, is pecuniarily interested as heir, legatee, creditor or otherwise, or in which he is related to either party within the sixth degree of consanguinity or affinity, or to counsel within the fourth degree, computed according to the rules of the civil law, or in which he has been executor, administrator, guardian, trustee or counsel, or in which he has presided in any inferior court when his ruling or decision is the subject of review, without the written consent of all parties in interest, signed by them and entered upon the record.The rule contemplates two kinds of inhibition: compulsory and voluntary. In the first paragraph, compulsory disqualification conclusively assumes that a judge cannot actively or impartially sit on a case for the reasons therein stated. The second paragraph, concerning voluntary inhibition, leaves to the judge's discretion whether he should desist from sitting in a case for other just and valid reasons with only his conscience to guide him.[13]
A judge may, in the exercise of his sound discretion, disqualify himself from sitting in a case, for just or valid reasons other than those mentioned above. (Emphasis supplied.)
... Witnesses Ramirez, Ade, Soriano and victim himself Raul Hermo, could not have been mistaken in identifying accused as the one who shot Hermo on the forehead. It was crystal clear that they had a clear view of accused being only a mere 3 to 5 meters far from the accused. They could not have committed a mistake as they knew accused even before the incident and there is no plausible reason why these witnesses should lie under oath and implicate the accused. If they testified as they did, the explanation could only be that they really saw accused fired at Hermo. The denial of accused that it was not he but Eduardo Soriano who shot Hermo cannot prevail over his positive identification by said witnesses more importantly by victim Hermo himself, whom accused had not shown any improper motive which could have impelled him to testify against or implicate accused in the commission of the crime. The absence of evidence as to an improper motive strongly tends to sustain the conclusion that none existed and that the testimony is worthy of full faith and credit. For indeed, if an accused had nothing to do with the crime, it would be against the natural order of events and of human nature and against the presumption of good faith for a prosecution witness to falsely testify against the accused (People vs. Palili, 92 SCRA 552).....[17]Amarillo tried to capitalize on the supposed bias and inconsistencies of the prosecution witnesses. But as correctly observed by both the trial court and the appellate court, the mere relationship of the victim to the witnesses does not automatically impair the credibility of the witnesses where no improper motive can be ascribed to them.[18] Further, discrepancies on minor matters, i.e., which hand Amarillo used in firing the gun and how many bottles of beer Hermo's group consumed, do not impair the essential integrity of the prosecution evidence; rather, these tend to strengthen the testimonies because these erase any suspicion of rehearsed testimony. What is important is that the testimonies agree on the essential facts and that the respective versions corroborate and substantially coincide with each other to make a consistent and coherent whole.[19]