337 Phil. 497
DAVIDE, JR., J.:
That on or about the 30th day of October, 1989 in the municipality of Lubao, province of Pampanga, Philippines and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the above-named accused did then and there wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously, with intent to kill and with evident premeditation and treachery, kill Gloria Castro-Lagao with the use of a bladed or sharp weapon, hitting and stabbing her on the different parts of her body, the latter being his legitimate wife, thereby inflicting upon her fatal wounds which caused her death shortly thereafter.All contrary to law.[1]
Accused Fidel Lagao, Jr. was an overseas contract worker in Saudi Arabia when he and Gloria Tolentino Castro were married on May 1, 1983 (Exh. A). Fifteen days after the wedding, he left to resume work abroad. He returned home for good after two years. They had three children. They lived in a house of their own near his parents’ house in Sta. Filomena, Betis, Guagua, Pampanga. The couple also owned a passenger jeepney plying the Guagua-Sasmuan route which defendant drove.“Her throat is slashed and incised wound measures 7 1/2”
Their marriage, like other marriages, started happily but later foundered into a stormy one, punctuated by several violent and acrimonious quarrels due mostly to the obsessive jealousy of the defendant and ending with the wife leaving the husband and staying with her parents in their home in San Nicolas 1st, Sasmuan, Pampanga, after he has inflicted bodily harm on her and threatened to kill her by brandishing a knife at her. Usually their separations lasted a few days at most, after which they would kiss and make up until the next quarrel.
In one of their separations before the end of August 1989, Gloria confided to the barangay captain of San Nicolas 1st, who is the godfather of her oldest son, about the beating she was getting from the accused and the threats on her life made by him. He took it upon himself to see the accused together with some of his councilmen and they were able to have the two reconcile and the wife returned to her husband.
On October 1, 1989, Gloria saw her brother Jesus Castro in San Matias, Sta. Rita, Pampanga and told him that she and her husband had quarreled again after an argument and he had boxed her and threatened to kill her. She was sporting a cut lip, hematoma on the right cheek and left arm and on the thighs. They reported the beating and the threat to the police station at Sta. Rita and the incident was entered in the police blotter (Exh. G). Because of this last quarrel, Gloria had bundled her three children, left her husband and went to her parents' house. There she told her mother, her married sister Purita Manliclic, and their barangay captain about the threat on her life made by the accused. This time, the barangay captain referred the matter to his counterpart in Sta. Filomena, Guagua who promised to help her. Apparently, the two barangay captains failed to patch up the quarrel for Gloria did not go back to their home but continued to stay with her parents.
At about 5 o'clock in the afternoon of October 30, 1989, Gloria told her mother that her husband had asked her to go with him somewhere. The mother tried to dissuade her from going out with him knowing only too well the several threats on her life that he had made. She was afraid for her, not knowing what might happen if they were alone together. But Gloria's mind apparently was made up and she went down the house into the street to wait for her husband.
She saw her sister Purita whose house was only down the street 15 meters from their parents' house. The two sisters talked. Gloria told her that she was waiting for her husband to pass by. Purita noticed that Gloria was wearing a white T-shirt and striped walking shorts. Presently, the jeepney driven by the accused arrived. It came from the direction of the town proper of Sasmuan going towards Guagua. There were passengers on board. Accused stopped the vehicle and beckoned to Gloria who got on board. At that precise moment, the jeepney driven by Jesus Castro, coming from Guagua toward the direction of Sasmuan also arrived and stopped at almost the same spot. He saw his sister Gloria board her husband's jeepney and his sister Purita on the side of the road. He recalled that Gloria was wearing a white T-shirt and a pedal (pusher?) with yellow stripes.
Later at around 6 to 6:30 o'clock that evening, Eduarda Agapito was standing on Pambansang Street, San Nicolas 1st, Sasmuan as is her wont waiting for her daughter who works in Guagua. Soon the passenger jeepney driven by the accused stopped in front of her. Three or four passengers which included her daughter got off, leaving other passengers in the jeepney. She saw the victim who was seated beside her daughter. Apparently, the accused had decided to take on passengers upon reaching Guagua and make a return trip to Sasmuan. Of the four who had seen Gloria that afternoon with the accused, in point of time, it was Eduarda Agapito who was the last to see her alive.
Gloria did not return home that night. The worried mother told her daughter Purita about it the first thing the following morning and the latter in turn lost no time in relaying it to her brother Jesus Castro. So later that morning, Jesus and his wife went to see the accused in his house to inquire about the whereabouts of Gloria. Accused was not home when they arrived at his house. His parents were however in their house. So they waited for him. He finally showed up at 8 o'clock in the evening. He asked them why they were looking for Gloria there when she was not with him. They then left him and went to fetch the barangay captain to enlist his help. But when they returned, they were told that the accused was already asleep. Jesus Castro then made a missing person report to the Guagua police informing that his sister Gloria Castro-Lagao was missing since October 30, 1989 and was last seen with the accused. After that he made the same missing person report to PFC Ernesto Angel, Jr., night shift investigator of the Sasmuan police station, which the latter entered in the police blotter (Exh. J). He advised Castro to return in the morning so that he may be informed of any new developments on the case that the police may get from other police stations.
The following morning, November 1, 1989, when Gloria still had not shown up, Jesus Castro and his brother went back to Sta. Filomena to see the accused. But first they passed by the house of the barangay captain to ask him to accompany them to the house of the accused. But when they saw the barangay captain, he told them that their sister Gloria was found dead at Sto. Tomas, Lubao, Pampanga. Jesus Castro lost no time going to PFC Angel at the Sasmuan police station and reported to him what the barangay captain of Sta. Filomena had told him. PFC Angel had some of his men accompany Castro to Lubao in order to check on the report and to get the identity of the dead woman. They proceeded to the Sta. Monica Funeral Parlor in Sta. Cruz, Lubao where, upon viewing the dead woman, Castro identified her as his missing sister Gloria Castro-Lagao. She was still clad in the same clothes she had on when he saw her in the afternoon of October 30, 1989 on board the jeepney being driven by the accused.
It developed that at around 5:30 o'clock in the morning of October 31, 1989, barangay tanod Jesus Cordova of Sto. Tomas, Lubao saw the body of a dead woman near the irrigation ditch along the expressway in Barangay Sto. Tomas, Lubao which he reported to the police station at Lubao. Lubao policemen, led by Cpl. Romeo R. Mallari, night shift investigator, proceeded to the spot. They saw a dead female lying on the ground face upward. She had on a black bra and panty. Her dress -- white pants with yellow stripes and white T-shirt -- was torn. The pants was lowered almost to her knees. Her T-shirt was raised up to the chin exposing her breasts. Portions of the bra were ripped. The bra caps were raised to reveal the breasts. The body bore multiple stab wounds. The throat was slashed. After routine photographs of the body were taken, it was brought to the Escolastico Romero Hospital morgue in Lubao for autopsy. A report of the investigation that he conducted on the spot was prepared by Cpl. Mallari. No death weapon was recovered.
A post mortem examination was conducted on the body of the deceased by Dr. Paz Lalic Yap, Municipal Health Officer of Lubao at 10:35 o'clock in the morning of October 31, 1989. Her post mortem examination report (Exh. L) showed the following among other findings:
Back at the Sasmuan police station, the group reported what they found to PFC Angel and Cpl. Leonardo G. Guevarra, Jr., the chief investigator. Cpl. Guevarra instructed PFC Angel to get the statements of Jesus Castro as well as other witnesses. Based on the statements given by the witnesses and the previous report made by Castro, the police knew that they had a prime suspect in the husband of the deceased. The finger of suspicion pointed him. The police needed no expert sleuthing to tell them something that was very plain for all to see. Guevarra therefore, directed Angel and two policemen to proceed to Barangay Sta. Filomena, Guagua and to coordinate with the barangay captain of the place to bring the suspect in for investigation.In its Decision[4] dated 4 November 1994, the trial court found the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of parricide, and sentenced him to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua and to pay the heirs of the deceased P50,000 as indemnity; P100,000 as moral damages; and P8,600 as attorney's fees.[5]
When the detachment returned to the station with the suspect in tow, he was taken to the investigation room for questioning. Accused however remained silent and refused to answer any question put to him by the investigators. In the course of their interrogation of the suspect, Cpl. Guevarra and PFC Angel noticed scratches on his hand and arm. They considered the scratches significant. They theorized that the victim must have put up a struggle while being attacked and may have been able to claw at her attacker. They asked him to remove his T-shirt. The suspect did not object and readily complied with the request. The investigators saw a scratch on his right shoulder. They had photographs of the suspect taken to show the scratches (Exhs. O, P and Q). A report on the investigation that they conducted (Exh. I) was prepared by them. Thereafter, the corresponding criminal complaint for parricide against the accused was filed by the police before the Municipal Trial Court of Sasmuan.
After the interrogation, Cpl. Guevarra had the accused brought to the Pampanga Provincial Hospital for the examination and treatment of his wounds and scratches. He was examined by Dr. Lilia Carlos, resident physician. Her findings of the physical examination she made of the accused, as entered in the medico legal record (Exh. M) of the hospital which she produced in Court, showed that there were four (4) linear abrasions on the extremities of the right arm, a 1 1/2 cm abrasion on the left wrist, and linear abrasions on his back. Explaining how he got the abrasions, accused volunteered the information to the doctor that he was fixing something under his jeep the day before and he had to lie down to do it. When seen by the doctor, the abrasions were almost healed or starting to heal.
The accused presented only two witnesses -- himself and his mother Rosita Lagao. He put up the defense of denial. He denied that his marriage with the deceased had foundered and that their relationship was stormy and marked by frequent quarrels. On the contrary, he claimed that their marriage was harmonious. He denied inflicting injuries on his wife or ever having laid a hand on her. He denied having fetched his wife on October 30, 1989. He claimed that he did not drive out the jeep that day. He branded as false the testimonies of Jesus Castro, Purita Manliclic and Eduardo Agapito that Gloria was in the jeep with him in the late afternoon or early evening of that day. He claimed that his wife used to take frequent vacations at his parents' home. While he admitted that they were indeed living separately on October 30, 1989, he claimed that they were not separated and that she was merely vacationing with her parents and that she even sought his permission as well as his mother's to do so. Explaining the abrasions on his hand, arm and his back, he said that they were caused by the policemen during his custodial investigation when they were forcing him to admit killing his wife and when he refused they had forcibly pushed him inside a cell. They pushed him around several times and even poked their guns and knives at him.
On rebuttal, Jesus Castro declared that Gloria separated from the accused in October, 1989 and went to leave with their parents without the consent or permission of the accused or his mother because she was evading the accused who was obsessively jealous and was inflicting harm on her and even threatened to kill her several times.[3]
ARGUMENT
The policemen of Sasmuan, when the accused was under custodial investigation in the process of forcing the accused to admit that he killed his wife they caused physical injuries upon him. Thus, to cover-up the physical caused by them and to link or connect to their theory in killing his wife on November 2, 1989, accused was brought to the district provincial hospital by four (4) policemen of Sasmuan by a police patrol vehicle, for physical examination. But Dra. Lilia Carlos testified in the hearing on November 8, 1990, that on November 1, 1989 at 4:15 p.m. she physically examined the accused in hand-cupped, which shows that the policemen were really bent in forcing the accused to admit the offense charged.
The allegations or claims of the policemen that the injuries and scratches on the body of the accused, were caused during the struggle in killing his wife, were belied by the testimony of Dra. Paz Lalic-Yap, on November 29, 1990 that the deceased (Gloria Castro Lagao) that she did not resist or struggle, because there was no abrasion on her body and her finger nails are clean.
As to the testimonies of the other prosecution witness, the record will show that they are hearsay and most of them are two (2) steps away from their alleged sources of their information, thus, inadmissible per se in evidence, thereby they do not deserve to discuss in this brief.RESUME
Summing the above circumstances as borne by the evidences and considering the conflicting testimonies of the witnesses presented by the prosecution and the nature of their testimonies, being hearsay per se, and taking into account the straight forward testimonies of the accused and her mother Rosita Lagao it clearly shows that the prosecution failed to prove the guilt of the accused of the offense charged beyond reasonable doubt.
In this connection, it may be stated that the State prefer to see Ninety Nine (99) person guilty of a crime wondering around scat free, rather than to see one (1) person innocent of a crime logging in jail.[11]
“A -If I may say it in the vernacular, he told me: “kasi, doctora, atin cung gagawan ketang lalam ning jeep, cailangan makakera, inia nagasgas cu.” (Because, Doctora, I was fixing something under my jeep, thereby I should lie down, that is why I suffered abrasion at the back).[22]
SEC. 6. When warrant of arrest may issue. --
(b) By the Municipal Trial Court. -- If the municipal trial judge conducting the preliminary investigation is satisfied after an examination in writing and under oath of the complainant and his witnesses in the form of searching questions and answers, that a probable cause exists and that there is a necessity of placing the respondent under immediate custody in order not to frustrate the ends of justice, he shall issue a warrant of arrest.