Title
People vs. Millora
Case
G.R. No. L-38831
Decision Date
Dec 27, 1982
Arnulfo Benitez was shot and stabbed by Marvin Millora, Tito Millora, and Tony Munoz in 1972, motivated by revenge. Despite alibi defenses, the court convicted Marvin and Tony of murder, with Tito, a minor, receiving a reduced sentence. Abuse of superiority qualified the crime.
people
millora
murder

Case Summary (G.R. No. L-38831)

Factual Background

The prosecution evidence showed that on April 27, 1972, Benitez and others were conversing in front of the Virgen Milagrosa Hospital. A red jeep driven by Marvin Millora, with his brother Tito and Feliciano Munoz (Tony) as passengers, stopped near the group. The headlights were still on after the jeep stopped. Marvin, armed with a .45 caliber pistol, alighted together with Tito, who carried an armalite, and Tony, who carried a carbine. Benitez immediately sensed that the trio intended to “liquidate” him, and he fled and took refuge inside the hospital.

Tito and Tony pursued Benitez, while Marvin remained on the street. Benitez later emerged because he felt trapped inside the hospital and had probably observed that Tito and Tony had followed him there. Benitez returned to Bonifacio Street and found Marvin waiting and shooting him, “as in an ambuscade.” Benitez fell but managed to stand and walk toward the gate of Pagdanganan’s residence a few meters away. Tito and Tony then shot him again, after which Benitez dropped to the ground. Tito retrieved a balisong knife from Tony and stabbed Benitez. The assailants loaded the victim into the jeep, which proceeded toward Dagupan City. The following day, Benitez’s corpse was found on a ricefield in Barrio Duyong, Calasiao, Pangasinan.

The motive advanced by the prosecution was revenge. It was stated that Benitez had, on a prior occasion, struck Marvin on the head. The autopsy findings supported a violent and multi-focal attack. Benitez sustained a gunshot entrance wound on his left forehead and an exit wound on his right forehead, with his brain out. He also suffered an entrance gunshot wound near the sternum (parasternal region) and an exit gunshot wound in the thoracic region, as well as a stab wound in the chest and multiple incised wounds on the cheek and neck.

Investigation and Filing of Information

The decision explained that the city police did not file charges at first. Instead, the case was investigated by the Constabulary. About four months after the killing, Tony Munoz was arrested. He executed a confession dated as Exh. A, implicating Marvin and Tito. The information, dated February 26, 1973, charged Tony Munoz and the Millora brothers with murder aggravated by treachery, abuse of superiority and evident premeditation.

Trial Court Proceedings

At trial, the Millora brothers pleaded alibi, asserting that they were in their residence on Roxas Boulevard, San Carlos City at the time of the shooting. That residence was said to be about one and a half kilometers from the crime scene. Marvin claimed he was playing mahjong, while Tito claimed he was collecting the tong and serving food to players. Tony Munoz, testifying for the defense, maintained that at the time of the killing he was in the residence of his cousin, Ricardo Munoz, at Caloocan City.

The trial court rejected both accused’s alibi. It held that the prosecution evidence more than met the standard for criminal conviction. The court found that the eyewitness accounts were credible and sufficiently identified the Millora brothers and Tony as the killers of Benitez. The trial court convicted Marvin and Tony of murder qualified by treachery and imposed a penalty of “life imprisonment” on Marvin, with an indemnity of twelve thousand pesos for the heirs of Benitez, to be paid solidarily.

As to Tito, the trial court recognized his minority at the time of the offense. It found that Tito acted with discernment, suspended his sentence, and ordered his commitment to the Vicente Madrigal Rehabilitation Center at Tanay, Rizal until he reached the age of majority. The decision noted that Tito was already in custody due to a decision dated November 26, 1973 in other criminal cases, referencing People vs. Munoz, 107 SCRA 313, 338.

Tony Munoz did not appeal. The Millora brothers appealed.

Issues on Appeal

The appeal raised mainly questions on credibility and sufficiency of identification. Counsel for the father argued that the trial court erred in finding that Marvin and Tito were positively identified by prosecution eyewitnesses—Isabelo Pagdanganan, Felipe Canilang, and Councilor Manuel Magali—despite alleged contradictions in their testimonies. The appellants further urged that they should have been acquitted because the guilt of the accused had not been proven beyond reasonable doubt. They also challenged the consideration given to their alibi.

The Parties’ Contentions

Appellants assailed the credibility of Pagdanganan and Canilang by emphasizing that they did not report immediately to the authorities what they allegedly knew about the killing. It was argued that their later statements—later executed as affidavits before Constabulary Sergeants M. Galsim and Romeo B. Colet on October 27, 1972 and December 13, 1972 respectively—showed unreliability. In response, the Court found that the delay was satisfactorily explained and did not defeat the probative value of their testimonies. The Court accepted the explanation that Canilang and Pagdanganan had been afraid of Marvin Millora and his group.

Appellants also pointed to supposed inconsistencies and discrepancies in Canilang’s and Pagdanganan’s testimonies, particularly when correlated with the testimony of the chief of police. The Court considered those alleged inconsistencies but held that the essential matter—identification of the appellants and Tony as the killers—remained consistent and harmonious across the prosecution witnesses.

With respect to Councilor Magali, appellants impugned his testimony, asserting that he had allegedly been convicted of estafa and that his interest in the case was unusual as a neighbor of Benitez. The Court rejected the insinuation of prevarication, relying on Magali’s account that he met the Millora brothers and Tony shortly before the killing at a police outpost about fifty meters from the scene.

Finally, appellants argued that their alibi created reasonable doubt. The Court, however, evaluated the alibi against the direct eyewitness identifications and concluded that the defenses did not generate reasonable doubt.

Ruling of the Court: Disposition

The Court affirmed the conviction of Marvin Millora, with a slight modification of the penalty designation. Instead of “life imprisonment,” the Court held that the proper penalty should be designated as reclusion perpetua, which carried the corresponding accessory penalties.

The Court also modified Tito’s treatment. It set aside the trial court’s commitment to a correctional institution and imposed an indeterminate sentence on Tito: a minimum of six months of arresto mayor and a maximum of four years, two months and one day of prision correccional. The Court ordered that Tito be solidarily liable with the others for the payment to Benitez’s heirs of the indemnity of P12,000.

Costs were assessed as costs de oficio, and the Court’s ruling was concurred in by Makasiar, De Castro, and Escolin, JJ.; Concepcion, Jr. and Guerrero, JJ. took no part. Abad Santos, J. concurred with the recommendation, with an observation that Tito Millora may have been considered for executive clemency, as noted in the text.

Legal Basis and Reasoning

The Court anchored its decision primarily on identification and the credibility of eyewitness testimony. It found that the delay in execution of affidavits by Canilang and Pagdanganan had been satisfactorily explained by fear of the accused. The Court also reasoned that the absence of immediate reporting might have been compounded by the lack of thorough investigation by policemen who, the Court inferred, were also afraid of the accused. Under that assessment, the Court held that the delay did not destroy the reliability of the testimony.

On the defense theory of alibi, the Court concluded that it did not withstand scrutiny. Given that the two eyewitnesses indubitably identified the appellants and Tony as the killers, the Court treated the alibis as brazen concoctions. It did not find merit in the claim that contradictions and discrepancies on minor details undermined the witnesses’ overall consistency on the central fact of participation in the killing.

With regard to the proper characterization of the qualifying circumstances, the Court ruled that the killing was murder qualified by abuse of superiority and not by treachery. It held that abuse of superior strength absorbed nocturnity. It also ruled that the use of a motor vehicle was not aggravating in the case, even if a jeep was used in concealing the victim’s corpse, because the jeep was not used as a means for the commission of the assassination. The Court further held that evident premeditation was not aggravating.

The penalty computation for Marvin rested on the Court’s determination that the crime was murder qualified by abuse of superiority, while evident premeditation and treachery were not aggravating in the way the trial court had held. The Court stated that the penalty imposable on Marvin was reclusion perpetua, described as the medium period for murder in the Court’s penalty framework for the qualified form it recognized. Accordingly, it modified the trial court’s imprecise statement of “life imprisonment” to the accurate legal designation reclusion perpetua, with the corresponding accessory penalties.

For Tito, the Court

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