G.R. No. L-5086; May 25, 1953
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. VENTURA LANAS, QUINTIN NGINA, alias BILOG NGINA, EUSEBIO LISWIG, and SMITH MAEGO, defendants, VENTURA LANAS and EUSEBIO LISWIG, defendants-appellants.

FACTS

In the early evening of November 10, 1950, an old man named Bayen left his house in Legleg, Baseo, Mountain Province, carrying a torch. The following morning, his body was found near rice paddies with three lacerated wounds on the back of his head and a bruise on his left cheek. A complaint for murder was filed against Ventura Lanas, Quintin Ngina, Eusebio Liswig, and Smith Maego. Quintin Ngina initially pleaded guilty during the preliminary investigation, executing a sworn statement (Exhibit 1) that he alone killed Bayen with a Japanese rifle without inducement from Lanas or Liswig. However, at the separate trial of appellants Lanas and Liswig, Ngina testified that Lanas called him and Liswig to his house, offered them P200 to kill Bayen, and that Lanas, Liswig, and he then followed Bayen. He claimed Lanas first attempted to shoot Bayen, but the gun did not fire, after which Liswig took the gun and hit Bayen on the head with its stock, killing him. The prosecution also presented Eusebia B. Sianen, Bayen’s daughter, who testified she heard Lanas threaten her father on November 8, 1950. The defense presented alibis: Liswig claimed he was at the municipal building the entire night, corroborated by a policeman on guard; Lanas denied the charges, attributing them to political enemies. The defense also highlighted numerous inconsistencies between Ngina’s trial testimony and his prior affidavits (Exhibit A and Exhibit 1), including the number of persons present during Lanas’s alleged proposal, whether Lanas accompanied them, who attempted to fire the gun, and whether payment was made. The trial court convicted Lanas and Liswig of murder, sentencing them to reclusion perpetua. They appealed.

ISSUE

Whether the guilt of appellants Ventura Lanas and Eusebio Liswig for the crime of murder has been proven beyond reasonable doubt based primarily on the uncorroborated and inconsistent testimony of accomplice Quintin Ngina.

RULING

No. The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of conviction and absolved the appellants. The Court held that the testimony of the principal witness, Quintin Ngina, an accomplice, was uncorroborated in any of its important parts and was riddled with material inconsistencies across his sworn affidavits and his court testimony. His testimony was contradicted by other evidence, such as the affidavit of Bagyan Bayen (another daughter of the deceased) who stated she saw Ngina and Smith Maego, not Liswig and Lanas, on the night of the killing, and by Eusebia Sianen’s own prior declaration which omitted Lanas’s alleged threat. The Court found the denials and alibis of the appellants, particularly Liswig’s corroborated alibi, to be credible. It emphasized that the testimony of an accomplice, coming from a “polluted source,” requires careful scrutiny and corroboration to sustain a conviction. In the absence of such corroboration and given the serious contradictions, Ngina’s initial confession (Exhibit 1) that he alone committed the crime may have been the truth. Therefore, the prosecution failed to prove the appellants’ guilt beyond reasonable doubt.