GR 117818; (April, 1997) (Digest)
G.R. No. 117818 April 18, 1997
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. ROMAN DERILO, ISIDRO BALDIMO y QUILLO, alias “Sido”, LUCAS DOÑOS, ALEJANDRO COFUENTES, and JOHN DOE, accused; ISIDORO BALDIMINO y QUILLO, alias “Sido”, accused-appellant.
FACTS
Accused-appellant Isidoro Baldimo, along with four others, was charged with Murder for the killing of Perpetua Adalim on January 1, 1982, in Taft, Eastern Samar. The prosecution’s eyewitness, Cresencio Lupido, testified that the victim was first shot three times by co-accused Roman Derilo and then repeatedly stabbed by Baldimo and another assailant. Only Baldimo was apprehended. Initially pleading not guilty, he stood trial. After the prosecution formally rested its case, Baldimo, through counsel, manifested his desire to withdraw his plea and instead plead guilty. The trial court conducted a re-arraignment, propounded questions to ensure the plea’s voluntariness, and subsequently convicted him of Murder.
ISSUE
Whether the trial court correctly imposed the death penalty on the accused-appellant.
RULING
No. The Supreme Court modified the penalty to reclusion perpetua. The Court held that the trial court erred in imposing the death penalty. While the killing was qualified by treachery, the trial court also found the generic aggravating circumstance of evident premeditation. However, the Court ruled that evident premeditation was not proven with the required moral certainty. The information contained a boilerplate allegation, and the prosecution evidence failed to establish the essential elements: the time when the offender determined to commit the crime, an act manifestly indicating this determination, and a sufficient lapse of time between the determination and execution to allow reflection. The testimony merely showed the assailants’ arrival and immediate attack, without proof of prior planning and reflection. With treachery as the sole qualifying circumstance and no other aggravating or mitigating circumstance, the proper penalty under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code is reclusion perpetua, not death. The Court affirmed the conviction but modified the penalty accordingly.