Case Summary (G.R. No. 36173)
Petitioner, Respondent and Procedural Posture
Petitioner: The People of the Philippine Islands (plaintiff and appellee). Respondent: Maria Orifon (defendant and appellant). Procedurally, the accused pleaded guilty at the preliminary investigation but pleaded not guilty at arraignment on the information filed in the Court of First Instance. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to cadena perpetua by the trial court. On appeal to the Supreme Court the conviction was affirmed but the sentence was modified.
Key Dates
Relevant dates appearing in the record: the defendant’s confession is dated 13 July 1931; the killing is described as occurring on 2 July 1931; the Supreme Court decision in the matter was rendered on 25 November 1932.
Facts of the Offense (as stated in the defendant’s written confession)
The accused’s written confession (in her own handwriting and in Ilocano) recounts repeated acts of sexual intercourse by her father without her consent over a period of time, beginning about a year earlier and continuing because she feared him. She states that the last such act occurred the Wednesday before the father’s death. On the night of Thursday, 2 July 1931, she left the house while the family slept, went to the place called Santisima where her father was, entered his cobacha, lit a match and saw him sleeping. She took his bolo (a large knife) from its sheath and inflicted two cuts on him — one to the left side of the neck and one to the left side of the abdomen. After the attack she took the bolo, hid it under a caiia plant north of the house, returned home and slept. She did not reveal the killing until she made the written statement to Teniente Chavez on 13 July 1931.
Confession: Language, Translation and Admissibility
The principal evidence against the accused was her written confession, prepared in Ilocano and appearing in the record as a Spanish translation. No objection to the confession’s admission was made by defense counsel at trial, and no question was raised on appeal regarding the confession’s voluntariness. On appeal the only objection asserted by counsel was a technical contention that the Court could not take notice of a confession written in dialect because the Spanish translation in the record was not identified or certified. The Supreme Court addressed this by noting that a member of the Court with personal knowledge of Ilocano assured the Court that the Spanish translation in the record was substantially correct; the Court accepted the translation under those circumstances and cited Dionisio v. Dionisio, 45 Phil. 609, 611, as authority.
Corroboration and Evidentiary Conclusion
The Supreme Court found that there was sufficient corroboratory evidence, independent of the confession, to warrant its admission and use against the defendant. Because no contemporaneous objection was interposed at trial to the confession’s admission and because independent corroboration existed, the Court treated the confession as admissible and as constituting principal evidence supporting the conviction.
Applicable Law and Sentencing Adjustment
The trial court had imposed the penalty of cadena perpetua. The Supreme Court noted that, under the Revised Penal Code (the statutory penal law in force), the penalty of cadena perpetua no longer exists; accordingly, the Court modified the sentence to reclusion perpetua and ordered the accessory penalties provided by law to attend that sentence. The Court further invoked article 5, second paragraph, of the Revised Penal Code in expressing its view that, gi
...continue readingCase Syllabus (G.R. No. 36173)
Citation and Bench
- Reported at 57 Phil. 594; G.R. No. 36173; decided November 25, 1932.
- Decision authored by Justice Butte.
- Justices Avancena, C. J., Villamor, Ostrand, Villa-Real, Abad Santos, Hull, Vickers, and Imperial concurred.
- Justice Street filed a concurring opinion.
- Justice Malcolm recorded a separate vote to affirm the judgment as modified.
Procedural Posture
- Defendant-appellant: Maria Orifon.
- Charge: Murder of her father, Lazaro Orifon.
- At the preliminary investigation, the accused pleaded guilty.
- On arraignment upon the information filed in the Court of First Instance, the accused pleaded not guilty.
- At trial in the Court of First Instance, the accused was convicted and sentenced to cadena perpetua.
- On appeal to the Supreme Court, counsel for the accused raised a technical objection concerning the admissibility/notice of a confession written in dialect and the uncertified Spanish translation appearing in the record.
- The Supreme Court affirmed the conviction but modified the penalty in accordance with applicable law.
Facts as Appearing in the Record
- The defendant is described in her confession as a single woman, 24 years of age, resident of the place called Sagpatan, Municipality of Dingras, Ilocos Norte.
- The victim is identified as the defendant’s father, Lazaro Orifon.
- The defendant stated that, about two years prior to the killing (the year 1930 is referred to), on a night while she was sleeping, her father was on top of her and, despite her resistance, he "fornicated" and "violated" her; he threatened to kill her or both her and her mother if she screamed or reported the act.
- The defendant declared that after that first instance her father continued to have sexual access to her because she feared him and could not refuse; she recounted that the last time her father lay with her was the Wednesday preceding his death.
- The defendant stated that she did not at first premeditate killing her father, but later, fearing that the facts would soon be discovered and because of shame at facing her mother and the people, she conceived a "bad intention" and planned to do what she then did.
- The defendant described the killing as occurring on the night of Thursday, purportedly the 2nd day of July, 1931, when members of the household (her mother, her brothers and a second-degree cousin named Alfredo Ballesteros) were asleep.
- She stated that she left the house, went to a place called Santisima where her father was often during rice-transplanting days, entered their cobacha, lit a match, saw her father sleeping and his bolo sheathed, drew the bolo, and struck her father twice — once on the left side of his neck and once on the left side of his abdomen.
- Immediately after striking her father she took the bolo with her to the house but left the sheath; upon arriving home she hid the bolo under a plant of "caiia" north of their house and then went to sleep.
- She stated that she had revealed these facts to no one until she made her declaration to Lieutenant Chavez of the Constabulary and companions on July 13, 1931.
- The principal evidence against the accused at trial was this written confession in her own handwriting and in her own dialect (Ilocano), which appears in the record in Spanish.
Confession as Appearing in the Record (Spanish Text)
- The record contains the following confession in Spanish as written in the transcript:
- "Yo, Maria Orifon, que firmo al pie de estas mis declaraciones, soltera, de 24 anos de edad y residente en el lugar llamado Sagpatan del Municipio de Dingras, Ilocos Norte, declarp la pura verdad en los siguientes parrafos y no declaro nada que no sea verdad y solo declarare lo que realmente ocurrio y he hecho. 'Si no me equivoco, recuerdo que el 2. afio atras o sea el afio 1930 sin recordar el mes, en una noche en que yo estaba durmiendo, aquel mi difunto padr