Case Digest (G.R. No. 111009-12)
Facts:
People of the Philippines v. Jose Flores y Salinas, et al., G.R. Nos. 111009-12, December 08, 1994, the Supreme Court First Division, Padilla, J., writing for the Court. The accused-appellants were SPO1 Jose Flores y Salinas, PO3 Romeo Artienda y Galvez, Jr., PO3 Manuel Corpuz y Lacuata, PO1 Amado Merca y Lopez, and PO3 Edwin “Eden” Tubiera y Detabli (with Leonito Macapagal and another at-large person also charged but later acquitted on insufficiency of evidence). The criminal informations, filed in the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of La Trinidad, Benguet, charged the officers in four separate cases with Murder with Unintentional Abortion (92-CR-1358), Murder (92-CR-1365), Murder (92-CR-1366) and Frustrated Murder (92-CR-1407) arising from events of June 18–19, 1992 along Naguilian Road in Benguet.The prosecution’s case centered on the testimony of Myrna Diones y Nitcha, the lone survivor, who recounted that she and three female companions were accosted in San Fernando, La Union by persons she later identified as police officers; detained at a Canaoay police substation; then transported in a white Ford Fiera and a red car to Naguilian Road where three companions were killed and she was stabbed and left for dead but survived. Myrna identified five policemen from photographs, in supervised line-ups, and in open court; her father Eusebio Diones identified the bodies of the deceased at the funeral parlor. Investigating officers recovered three bodies near the road and a fourth body a kilometer away; Myrna was treated at Baguio General Hospital and interviewed by CIS investigators.
At the RTC the cases were tried jointly. On July 2, 1993 the trial court convicted the five accused of the respective felonies (reclusion perpetua for the murders; indeterminate sentence for frustrated murder) and acquitted Leonito Macapagal for insufficiency of evidence; the trial court declined to rule on civil liability because a separate civil action was pending. The convicted officers appealed to the Supreme Court, assigning errors attacking (a) the credibility of Myrna and Eusebio Diones, (b) the identif...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Was the trial court correct in accrediting the testimony and identifications made by Myrna Diones as to the identity of the accused?
- Was the trial court justified in accepting Eusebio Diones’ identifications of the deceased bodies?
- Did the accused-appellants’ alibis, and the witnesses who supported them, create reasona...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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