GR L 2618; (April, 1950) (Digest)
G.R. No. L-2618. April 1, 1950.
EL PUEBLO DE FILIPINAS, plaintiff-appellee, vs. LEONCIO PIOSCA y FLORENTINO PEREMNE, defendants. FLORENTINO PEREMNE, appellant.
FACTS
On the night of May 26, 1948, in Barrio Cabalbagan, Pototan, Iloilo, Manuel Bacero, his wife Expectacion Pelaez, and their maids were in their house when several armed persons arrived and ordered the door opened. Using a flashlight and a lamp, Bacero and the maids recognized two of the assailants as Leoncio Piosca and Florentino Peremne. Shots were fired, the door was broken down, and the robbers entered, took P120 and pieces of cloth, and fled. Expectacion Pelaez was found dead, and maid Hortensia Veloso was wounded. The trial court acquitted Leoncio Piosca but convicted Florentino Peremne of robbery with homicide, sentencing him to reclusion perpetua and ordering him to indemnify the heirs of the deceased. Peremne appealed, arguing the prosecution’s evidence was false and that the witnesses’ identification was unnatural and unreliable.
ISSUE
Is the identification of the appellant Florentino Peremne as one of the perpetrators by the prosecution witnesses credible and sufficient to sustain his conviction?
RULING
Yes. The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction. The Court found the witnesses’ identification credible. The delay by Bacero in revealing the names of the assailants to the municipal police was justified due to his fear, given that one of the accused (Piosca) was his neighbor and was seen with the responding officers, creating a reasonable suspicion of collusion. The act of the witnesses using lights to see who was at the door was deemed a natural, spontaneous reaction, not an indication of a fabricated story. Minor inconsistencies in the witnesses’ testimonies regarding insignificant details were considered to strengthen, not weaken, their credibility, as they indicated a lack of rehearsal. The failure to prove the value of the stolen cloths did not affect the conviction for the complex crime, but the civil liability was modified to cover only the proven cash loss of P120. The sentence was affirmed with the modification on indemnity.
AI Generated by Armztrong.