GR 116437; (March, 1997) (Digest)
G.R. No. 116437 March 3, 1997
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. PABLITO ANDAN y HERNANDEZ @ BOBBY, accused-appellant.
FACTS
Accused-appellant Pablito Andan was charged with the rape and homicide of Marianne Guevarra. The prosecution established that on February 19, 1994, the victim, a nursing student, was walking in Baliuag, Bulacan, when Andan lured her into his house under the pretext of having his wife’s grandmother’s blood pressure checked. Once inside, he punched her, raped her, and later, to conceal the crime, bludgeoned her head with a concrete hollow block, causing her death. Her body was discovered the next day. The police investigation recovered the victim’s belongings from a canal near Andan’s house, bloodstains on his pigpen, and his blood-stained clothing.
Upon arrest, Andan initially denied involvement but later, during police interrogation without counsel, implicated his neighbors and led the police to where the victim’s bags were hidden. This act and his subsequent statements were documented. He later repudiated these admissions at trial, claiming they were coerced.
ISSUE
The primary issue is whether the extrajudicial admissions and the evidence obtained from the warrantless search and seizure are admissible against the accused.
RULING
The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and the imposition of the death penalty. The Court ruled that the constitutional rights during custodial investigation apply only to admissions made while under police custody and interrogation. Andan’s act of leading the police to the hidden bags was a spontaneous verbal act and not a product of custodial interrogation; it was therefore admissible as part of the res gestae. The recovery of the bags was a valid warrantless search incident to a lawful arrest, as the discovery was contemporaneous with the arrest and within his immediate control.
Furthermore, the evidence obtained from his house (bloodstained clothes) was admissible. The initial search and seizure were conducted by his stepbrother-in-law, a private individual, who voluntarily surrendered the items to the police. The constitutional proscription against unreasonable searches and seizures applies only to government agents, not to private individuals. The evidence was thus received without constitutional infirmity. The totality of the circumstantial evidence, including the physical evidence and his own conduct, established his guilt beyond reasonable doubt for the complex crime of rape with homicide.