G.R. No. 61704 March 8, 1989
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. NUEPE WAGAS y MILAN, accused-appellant.

FACTS

The accused-appellant, Nuepe Wagas, was convicted of parricide for killing his wife, Victoria Viscaya-Wagas. The prosecution established that on April 30, 1981, in Baguio City, Wagas approached his wife and her companions, slapped her, and then stabbed her twice after she fell into a canal. Witnesses, including the victim’s sister and brother, saw the attack. The brother pursued Wagas, who fled. Victoria was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Police later found Wagas in his bathroom with a blood-stained knife and an empty poison bottle beside him.
Wagas admitted to the killing but raised the justifying circumstance under Article 247 of the Revised Penal Code. He claimed he arrived home to find his wife and another man, Jacinto Solano, engaged in a sexual act. In a fit of fury, he grabbed a knife. After Solano escaped, Wagas confronted his wife at a neighbor’s house. He stated that upon hearing her plan to separate, he slapped her, a struggle ensued, and he discovered she was bleeding. He then returned home in distress. The prosecution presented witnesses who testified that Victoria had been with them picking strawberries all morning, contradicting Wagas’s claim of discovering her at home.

ISSUE

Whether the accused-appellant is entitled to the justifying circumstance under Article 247 of the Revised Penal Code, which would exempt him from criminal liability for killing his spouse caught in the act of adultery.

RULING

The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction. The legal logic centers on the strict requirements of Article 247. For the defense to succeed, the accused must prove two essential elements: first, that he surprised his spouse in the act of sexual intercourse with another person; and second, that the killing occurred during the act or immediately thereafter. The killing must be the proximate result of the overwhelming outrage from directly witnessing the infidelity.
The Court found Wagas’s defense without merit. His uncorroborated testimony was successfully rebutted by the prosecution’s witnesses, who provided a credible alibi for Victoria’s whereabouts, making the alleged adulterous rendezvous highly improbable. The Court emphasized that prior marital discord or the wife’s general reputation for infidelity is insufficient to invoke Article 247. The law requires actual discovery in flagrante delicto. Since Wagas failed to prove this crucial element, his claim of acting under the influence of overwhelming passion justified by law collapses. The issue of whether the killing was immediate thereafter becomes irrelevant. Consequently, the trial court correctly found him guilty of parricide. The penalty of reclusion perpetua was affirmed, with the civil indemnity increased to P30,000.00.