G.R. No. L-11166; April 17, 1959
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. EUGENIO OLAES, accused-appellant.

FACTS

Between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m. on November 9, 1954, a Laguna Transportation Company bus was flagged down on the road in Barrio Almanza, Las Piñas, Rizal, by a man identified as Cosme Isip. Seven other armed men, including accused-appellant Eugenio Olaes, emerged. When the driver sped away to escape, the group fired at the bus. A passenger, Maria Argame, was shot and killed. Another passenger, Elena Loyola, was shot and wounded, requiring hospitalization; expert testimony stated she would have died without prompt medical attention. The driver, Feliciano Limosnero, also sustained a grazing head wound. Star witness Mariano Inobio, a resident of the same barrio as Olaes, identified Olaes as one of the armed men who fired at the bus. Olaes interposed an alibi and claimed Inobio failed to identify him during initial police investigations due to a prior personal grudge. The trial court convicted Olaes of the consummated crime of robbery with homicide and frustrated homicide, sentencing him to life imprisonment.

ISSUE

Whether the trial court correctly convicted the accused-appellant, and whether the crime committed and the penalty imposed were proper.

RULING

The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction but modified the classification of the crimes and the penalties. The Court agreed with the trial court’s finding of guilt based on the positive identification by witness Inobio, rejecting the defense of alibi and the claim of improper motive. However, the Court held that the charge was for attempted robbery with homicide and frustrated homicide, and since no overt acts of robbery were established, the killing and wounding could not be classified as robbery with homicide. Instead, the acts constituted: (1) Murder for the killing of Maria Argame, qualified by the aggravating circumstance of “in band”; (2) Frustrated Murder for the wounding of Elena Loyola; and (3) Less Serious Physical Injuries for the wounding of driver Limosnero (treated for less than 30 days). The aggravating circumstance of nocturnity was compensated by the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender. For Murder, the penalty imposed was reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment). For Frustrated Murder, the penalty was an indeterminate sentence of 6 years of prision correccional to 14 years of reclusion temporal. For Less Serious Physical Injuries, the penalty was 3 months of arresto mayor. The Court disapproved of the trial court’s cited reason for not imposing the death penalty (the alleged attitude of the Chief Executive), stating that courts must apply the law as written. The appealed decision was affirmed with these modifications.