Case Digest (G.R. No. L-25534)
Facts:
The People of the Philippines v. Felipe Fastidio y Casiano, G.R. No. L-25534, November 22, 1969, the Supreme Court En Banc, Concepcion, C.J., writing for the Court.The prosecution (the People of the Philippines) charged Felipe Fastidio (defendant-appellant), a married schoolteacher from San Antonio, Zambales, with the murder of Mrs. Julita Gallardo Colorado on March 10, 1961. The trial evidence showed that Fastidio and Mrs. Colorado had an illicit, longstanding affair and that he had written numerous intimate letters to her; many of those letters and other writings were admitted in evidence. Mrs. Colorado was found dead in Room No. 10 of the Broadway Hotel in San Fernando, Pampanga, with multiple stab and incised wounds; a bloodstained knife/dagger and other articles were recovered from the room.
Hotel employees Chan Fook (manager) and Ernesto Cortez (waiter) testified that a man who registered as “Flor Herrera … Manila” and who matched their description joined Mrs. Colorado at the hotel and accompanied her to Room No. 10 on the morning of March 10. A drinking glass (Exh. D) bearing fingerprints later identified as matching Fastidio’s was recovered from the room. A letter (Exh. J) and hotel register entry bearing the “Flor Herrera” name were found among the victim’s effects; handwriting experts of the Constabulary testified that these and other letters found on the victim were written by the same hand as known specimens of Fastidio’s writing. Medical examiners described the fatal wounds and opined that death resulted from traumatic shock due to multiple stab wounds.
Police located Fastidio the next day at his home; witnesses and police identified him in successive confrontations as the man seen with Mrs. Colorado. He was examined at Camp Olivas and found to have fresh wounds on his left hand and arm consistent, in the opinion of the prosecution’s medico-legal expert, with having been caused by the same knife (Exh. L) with which Mrs. Colorado was killed. Fastidio testified an alibi—that he was in San Juan, Rizal and later at Mrs. Barreto’s house and Manila on March 10—and produced corroborating witnesses; he denied the identification and denied having been at the Broadway Hotel. The defense contested the provenance of the glass and the handwriting comparisons.
The Court of First Instance of Pampanga convicted Fastidio of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment, ordered indemnities and damages (P6,000 compensatory; P3,000 moral; P3,000 exemplary), and added a judicial comment recommending...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Was appellant Felipe Fastidio proven guilty of murder beyond reasonable doubt?
- Were the facts sufficient to establish qualifying and aggravating circumstances (including evident premeditation, craft, abuse of confidence, ungratefulness, and advantage of superior strength) that would warrant imposition of the maximum penalty?
- Was the trial court’s directive that the Secretary of Justice recommend pardon aft...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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