Case Digest (G.R. No. L-26789)
Facts:
The People of the Philippines v. Dicto Arpa and Maalum Arpa, G.R. No. L-26789, April 25, 1969, the Supreme Court En Banc, Teehankee, J., writing for the Court. The prosecution in the Court of First Instance of Davao charged Dicto Arpa and Maalum Arpa with Robbery with Triple Homicide in Criminal Case No. 9694; the information alleged that while aboard the motor banca “MAMI I” bound for Talicud Island, the accused, by firing a .22 revolver to intimidate passengers and taking advantage of engine trouble in the middle of the sea, stole the banca and that as a consequence three passengers jumped overboard and drowned.At arraignment the accused, through counsel de oficio, sought to plead guilty only as to the killing of one passenger and denied killing the two others; the fiscal refused to accept a qualified plea and the trial judge required them to enter a full plea. The next day the information was read in a dialect the accused understood and both pleaded guilty; the trial court credited their plea as a mitigating circumstance but rejected their claim of lack of intent to commit so grave a wrong and, finding two aggravating circumstances (commission in an uninhabited place and on the occasion of a calamity or misfortune), sentenced each to death on March 11, 1966 and ordered indemnities.
On automatic review by this Court of the death sentences, new counsel de oficio (Atty. Antonio L. Africa) was appointed for the accused and the Solicitor-General recommended affirmance. Counsel for the accused assigned errors contesting: (1) characterization of the crime as robbery with triple homicide; (2) finding of the...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Is the crime committed a single, special offense of Robbery with Triple Homicide under Article 294, paragraph 1 of the Revised Penal Code?
- Were the aggravating circumstances of (a) commission in an uninhabited place, and (b) commission on the occasion of a conflagration, shipwreck, earthquake, epidemic, or other calamity or misfortune properly found?
- Was the claimed mitigating circumstance of lack of intent to commit so grave a wrong properly rejected?
- Was the imposition of the death penalty...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Ratio:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Doctrine:
- (Subscriber-Only)