G.R. No. 45693 ; June 4, 1938
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. ISIDRO LOMUNTAD and JERONIMO MOSEÑOS, defendants-appellants.

FACTS

The appellants, Isidro Lomuntad and Jeronimo Moseños, were convicted of arson for setting fire to the inhabited house of Marcelino Lomuntad in Samar. The prosecution established that early on March 8, 1937, the house was set on fire while the owner’s children were asleep inside. The eldest child, Enrique, saw and recognized the appellants fleeing by moonlight and firelight. Another witness, Segundo Picaña, saw them going toward and later running from the house around the time of the fire. Motive was shown: Moseños held a grudge over a land dispute, and Isidro Lomuntad was aggrieved after his carabaos were impounded for damaging Marcelino’s crops. The appellants’ defense was alibi, which was uncorroborated.

ISSUE

Whether the appellants were correctly convicted under Article 321, paragraph 1 of the Revised Penal Code for arson of an inhabited house, considering the proof of their knowledge that the house was inhabited at the time of the crime.

RULING

No. The Court affirmed the conviction but modified the penalty. While the evidence sufficiently proved the appellants committed the arson, it did not conclusively establish that they knew the house was inhabited at that precise time, a requisite for conviction under paragraph 1 of Article 321. Therefore, they should be penalized under paragraph 2 of the same article (arson of a building which is not inhabited). With the aggravating circumstance of nighttime and no mitigating circumstance, the maximum period of the penalty was applied. Under the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the modified penalty is from ten years, eight months and one day of prision mayor to eighteen years, two months and twenty-one days of reclusion temporal. The judgment was affirmed in all other respects.

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