G.R. No. 139330; February 6, 2002
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. ROGELIO SANSAET y SANTOJALA, SILVERIO SANSAET y SANTOJALA, and LEOPOLDO SANSAET y SANTOJALA, accused-appellants.

FACTS

The case stemmed from a fatal altercation on June 25, 1989, in Tobias Fornier, Antique. A group, including the accused-appellants Silverio and Leopoldo Sansaet and the victim Uldarico de Castro, was drinking tuba. A joke about penis length escalated when Leopoldo asked Uldarico why he did not ask his wife about the length of another man’s penis. This remark angered Uldarico. Rogelio Sansaet then challenged Uldarico to a fight, and both armed with bolos went downstairs and hacked each other. Silverio and Leopoldo positioned themselves behind Uldarico and joined in hacking him. Uldarico fell, was dragged towards a river, and was further hacked by Rogelio and Leopoldo until he died. The three Sansaet brothers later surrendered to the police.
The Regional Trial Court convicted Silverio and Leopoldo Sansaet of murder, qualified by abuse of superior strength, and sentenced them to reclusion perpetua. They appealed, arguing the trial court erred in crediting the testimony of a prosecution witness who was a relative of the victim and in rejecting their defense.

ISSUE

Whether the accused-appellants are guilty of murder or a lesser offense.

RULING

The Supreme Court modified the conviction from murder to homicide. The Court upheld the trial court’s factual findings and credibility assessment of the prosecution witness, ruling that a decision penned by a judge who did not personally hear the witnesses is not inherently erroneous if based on the case records. However, the Court found the qualifying circumstance of abuse of superior strength was not proven. For this circumstance to qualify the killing as murder, the aggressors must have purposely sought and taken advantage of their combined strength to ensure the commission of the crime with minimal risk to themselves. Here, the evidence showed the fight was a sudden altercation arising from a heated exchange. Uldarico himself initiated the confrontation by engaging Rogelio. There was no proof that Silverio and Leopoldo deliberately used their numerical superiority from the outset to overpower the victim. Thus, the crime committed is homicide under Article 249 of the Revised Penal Code. The Court sentenced each appellant to an indeterminate penalty of ten years of prision mayor, as minimum, to seventeen years and four months of reclusion temporal, as maximum, and affirmed the awards of civil indemnity, moral damages, and funeral expenses.