G.R. No. L-31911 July 20, 1979
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. BENITO DE LA CRUZ and CIPRING DE LA CRUZ, defendants-appellants.
FACTS
On October 29, 1968, lighthouse keeper Melchor Bago was accosted and hogtied by five armed men, including appellants Benito and Cipring de la Cruz, near the lighthouse on Hinamok Island. The assailants demanded government-issued firearms from Melchor, tied him to a cemetery post, and gagged him. Before leaving, Benito stated they would kill Melchor’s wife, Adriana, and return for him. That same evening, a witness saw a motorized banca, matching the description of the appellants’ vessel, anchor near Melchor’s house and seven men disembark. The following morning, Melchor was found and freed. He discovered his wife, Adriana, dead with her hands and feet bound and a rattan strip around her neck. The body of Edilberto Estriber, with multiple fatal gunshot wounds, was found on the beach. Melchor’s house was ransacked, with cash, jewelry, a radio, and other valuables missing.
ISSUE
Whether the guilt of appellants Benito and Cipring de la Cruz for the crime of Robbery in Band with Double Homicide has been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
RULING
Yes. The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction but modified the penalty to reclusion perpetua due to lack of the required votes for capital punishment. The prosecution established guilt through the positive identification by victim Melchor Bago and a chain of circumstantial evidence. Melchor clearly identified the appellants as among the men who tied him up, threatened him, and inquired about his firearms and the layout of his house. Their subsequent actions and statements indicated a conspiracy to rob and kill. The circumstantial evidence—including the arrival of their distinctive banca, the discovery of the ransacked house and stolen items, and the contemporaneous killings—formed an unbroken chain leading to the reasonable conclusion that the appellants committed the crime. The Court rejected the defense of alibi, noting it was not physically impossible for the appellants to have traveled from their claimed location to the crime scene. The aggravating circumstances of nighttime and band were present, with no mitigating circumstances to offset them. The penalty for Robbery with Homicide is reclusion perpetua to death; the Court imposed reclusion perpetua. The appellants were also ordered to pay indemnity for the stolen property.