G.R. No. L-46161 February 25, 1985
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. SANTIAGO ROSARIO and SALVADOR ROSARIO, accused-appellants.

FACTS

Accused-appellants Santiago and Salvador Rosario, along with their father Juan, were charged with murder for the killing of Julio Torio. The trial court acquitted Juan but convicted Santiago and Salvador of homicide, not murder, with the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superior strength. It sentenced them to varying prison terms. The prosecution evidence established that on September 1, 1965, the victim was fishing with two companions when Santiago and Salvador, both armed with bolos, approached him from opposite directions. Salvador said, “You hit him, Cuya,” whereupon Santiago struck Torio from behind. As Torio turned, Salvador struck his face, severing his ear. The attack continued until Torio, sustaining ten fatal wounds, fell into a fishpond and died.

ISSUE

Whether the trial court correctly convicted the appellants of homicide, or if the crime should be qualified as murder due to the attendance of treachery.

RULING

The Supreme Court modified the conviction from homicide to murder. The legal logic is that the manner of attack constituted both treachery and abuse of superior strength. The appellants, armed with bolos, consciously adopted a mode of execution by approaching the unarmed victim from two sides, ensuring he was suddenly and violently assaulted without any opportunity for defense. This suddenness and the positioning guaranteed the execution of the attack without risk to the appellants. While both circumstances were present, treachery absorbs the aggravating circumstance of abuse of superior strength in qualifying the killing to murder. Consequently, with treachery as the qualifying circumstance, the crime is murder. The Court imposed the penalty of reclusion perpetua on Salvador Rosario and an indeterminate penalty on Santiago Rosario, who benefited from the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender.