G.R. No. L-39136. April 15, 1988.
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. PEDRO MALAZZAB, accused-appellant.

FACTS

On December 10, 1970, in Sta. Teresita, Cagayan, Primitive Javier and his son Elmer were walking home when they heard a gunshot. They saw accused-appellant Pedro Malazzab, a municipal policeman, armed with two guns. Malazzab, in a kneeling position, pointed his long gun at them. Despite their pleas with hands raised, Malazzab fired successive shots, hitting Primitive on the thigh and arm, causing him to fall. Elmer ran a short distance away. Malazzab then approached the fallen Primitive and shot him at the right breast, causing his death. The postmortem examination confirmed multiple gunshot wounds as the cause of death. An information for Murder, qualified by treachery and aggravated by abuse of public position, was filed against Malazzab. The trial court convicted him of Murder and sentenced him to reclusion perpetua.

ISSUE

Whether the trial court erred in convicting the accused-appellant of Murder instead of accepting his claim of self-defense and/or performance of duty.

RULING

The Supreme Court modified the conviction from Murder to Homicide. The Court rejected the appellant’s claim of self-defense. Under his own version, he initially fired at the victim after the victim allegedly aimed a “gun-like tube” at him. Even assuming this constituted unlawful aggression, the Court ruled such aggression ceased once the appellant’s first shot disabled the victim by hitting his thigh. The subsequent successive shots, including the fatal shot delivered at close range while the victim was already on the ground, were no longer reasonably necessary to repel an attack. Thus, the justifying circumstance of self-defense was not established. The Court affirmed the trial court’s assessment of the prosecution witnesses as credible, upholding the factual finding that the appellant was the unlawful aggressor. However, the Court found the qualifying circumstance of treachery (alevosia) absent. While the attack was sudden, it was done frontally and in the open. The victim’s helpless position when the final shot was fired resulted from the initial wounding, not from a mode of attack deliberately adopted by the offender to ensure execution without risk. Treachery requires a deliberate method, not one arising from an unexpected turn of events. The crime committed is therefore Homicide under Article 249 of the Revised Penal Code. Considering the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender offset by the aggravating circumstance of taking advantage of public position, and applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the Court imposed an indeterminate penalty of eight years and one day of prision mayor as minimum to fourteen years, eight months and one day of reclusion temporal as maximum. The civil indemnity was increased to P30,000.00. The decision was affirmed with these modifications.