Case Digest (G.R. No. 209464)
Facts:
Dandy L. Dungo and Gregorio A. Sibal, Jr. v. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 209464, July 01, 2015, Second Division, Mendoza, J., writing for the Court.
Petitioners Dandy L. Dungo and Gregorio A. Sibal, Jr. (petitioners) challenged their conviction for violation of Section 4 of R.A. No. 8049 (the Anti‑Hazing Law) after the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 36, Calamba City, found them guilty and sentenced them to reclusion perpetua; the Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed in CA‑G.R. CR‑H.C. No. 05046, and the petitioners filed a petition for review on certiorari under Rule 45 to the Supreme Court. The petition complains that the offense proved at trial (inducing the victim’s presence at a hazing) was different from, and not necessarily included in, the offense described in the Amended Information (actual participation in assault), thus violating their constitutional right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.
The criminal Information, later amended, charged that on or about January 14, 2006 at Villa Novaliches, Brgy. Pansol, Calamba City, the accused, “during a planned initiation rite” and “in conspiracy with more or less twenty other members and officers,” willfully, unlawfully and feloniously assaulted one Marlon Villanueva, a neophyte, subjecting him to physical harm resulting in death. At arraignment the petitioners pleaded not guilty; various pretrial motions (including a motion to quash) were denied and trial followed.
The prosecution presented 20 witnesses, including hospital personnel (Dr. Ramon Masilungan, Dr. Roy Camarillo) who testified that Villanueva died of subdural hemorrhage due to head injury and bore numerous contusions consistent with hazing; a sari‑sari store owner (Susan Ignacio) and others who placed petitioners at Villa Novaliches Resort that night; security guards and a tricycle driver who recounted that petitioners delivered Villanueva’s lifeless body to JP Rizal Hospital and gave false names in the logbook; and witnesses placing Villanueva as a neophyte of Alpha Phi Omega (APO). Autopsy and medico‑legal reports also noted matchsticks marked with APO on the cadaver.
The defense offered seven witnesses, including alibi testimony for Dungo (his girlfriend and acquaintances) and testimony that the final rites had been cancelled and that petitioners merely accompanied or later brought Villanueva to the hospital. The RTC credited the prosecution’s circumstantial proofs and discredited the alibi and denial defenses as self‑serving and unreliable, finding petitioners present at the initiation, instrumental in bringing Villanueva to Villa Novaliches, and su...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- May the Court review questions of fact in a petition for review on certiorari under Rule 45, filed after the Court of Appeals affirmed a sentence of reclusion perpetua?
- Did the amended Information sufficiently charge the offense that was actually proved at trial (i.e., was there a fatal variance violating the petitioners’ right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation)?
- Was conspiracy among the hazing participants sufficiently proven?
- Was the guilt of petitioners proven beyond reasonable doubt by the circumstantial evidence...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Ratio:
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Doctrine:
- (Subscriber-Only)