G.R. No. L-30116 & L-30117, November 20, 1978
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. FAUSTO DAMASO, ET AL., defendants-appellants.

FACTS

In the evening of November 21, 1959, in Barrio Bangar, Victoria, Tarlac, armed appellants Fausto Damaso, Victoriano Eugenio, Lorenzo Alviar, and Bonifacio Espejo, together with an accomplice, entered the house of Donata Rebolledo. They tied up Donata’s son-in-law, Victoriano de la Cruz, and ransacked the house, stealing cash, jewelry, and other valuables. The appellants then forcibly took Donata’s daughters, Catalina and Susana Sabado, to a secluded sugarcane field. There, the victims’ forearms were tied together, and they were stabbed and their necks cut, resulting in their instantaneous deaths.
In a related case, appellant Lorenzo Alviar was separately charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. This charge stemmed from the recovery of a .22 caliber paltik revolver and ammunition from him following the investigation into the robbery and killings. The trial court jointly heard the two cases.

ISSUE

The principal issue is whether the guilt of the appellants for the complex crime of robbery with homicide was proven beyond reasonable doubt. A subsidiary issue is whether appellant Alviar’s conviction for illegal possession of firearm is valid.

RULING

The Supreme Court affirmed the convictions. On the charge of robbery with homicide, the Court found the prosecution’s evidence conclusive. The testimonies of eyewitnesses Donata Rebolledo and Victoriano de la Cruz, who identified the appellants, were deemed credible and consistent. Their accounts established that the robbery and the killings constituted a single, continuous criminal act. The Court applied the legal principle that when a homicide is committed by reason or on the occasion of a robbery, the two crimes merge into the special complex crime of robbery with homicide under Article 294(1) of the Revised Penal Code. The separate charge for the killings is absorbed.
The Court upheld the imposition of the death penalty due to the presence of multiple aggravating circumstances. These included the commission of the crime by a band, with treachery (the victims were bound and defenseless), and in an uninhabited place. An additional aggravating circumstance of dwelling, though not alleged in the information, was also established by evidence, as the robbery originated inside the victims’ home. Regarding the illegal possession charge against Alviar, the Court found his extrajudicial confession and the receipt for the seized firearm to be voluntarily executed and admissible, sufficiently proving his guilt. The penalty was thus affirmed in toto.