Title
People vs. Tabaco
Case
G.R. No. 100382-100385
Decision Date
Mar 19, 1997
Mario Tabaco convicted for four murders and one homicide after a 1987 shooting at Octagon Cockpit Arena; Supreme Court ruled separate penalties for each murder, rejecting complex crime doctrine.
murder
homicide
shooting incident
A

Case Summary (G.R. No. 100382-100385)

Chronology and governing law

  • Material factual date: March 22, 1987 (shooting incident).
  • Trial court decision: January 14, 1991.
  • Supreme Court decision: March 19, 1997 (decision date falls after 1990; the 1987 Philippine Constitution is therefore the constitutional framework referenced).
  • Statutes and rules cited in the record: Revised Penal Code provisions (including Article 48 and, as quoted in the trial court’s dispositive, Article 248), Article 4 (criminal liability for consequences different from that intended), the Indeterminate Sentence Law, and Rule 131 Section 5(M) (regular performance of official duty as weight in testimony).

Relevant Proceedings and Consolidation

Informations, consolidation, and charges

  • Four informations charged Mario Tabaco with Murder for the deaths of Capt. Tabulog, Ex-Mayor Arreola, Felicito Rigunan, and Pat. Regunton (Criminal Cases Nos. 10-259, 10-270, 10-284, 10-317). Each information used identical language except for victim names.
  • A separate information (Criminal Case No. 10-316) charged him with the complex crime of Homicide and Frustrated Homicide for the death of Jorge Siriban, Jr., and the wounding of Sgt. Benito Raquepo.
  • All cases were consolidated before Branch 10, Regional Trial Court (RTC), Aparri, Cagayan.

Prosecution’s Evidentiary Narrative

Eyewitness and corroborative testimony establishing guilt

  • Several prosecution eyewitnesses (Antonio Villasin, Rosario Peneyra, Fireman Rogelio Guimmayen) testified they saw Tabaco stand, assume a firing position with an M-14, and fire successive shots directed at the group where Ex‑Mayor Arreola and his companions were seated, resulting in multiple deaths. Distances were estimated at roughly three to five meters; the bleachers had four rows.
  • Additional prosecution witnesses (Sgt. Benito Raquepo, Pat. Mariano Retreta, PC Sgt. Rogelio Ferrer, PC Sgt. Antonio Domingo, Pat. Andres Semana, PC Sgt. Jose Algeria, Pat. Merlin Bautista) corroborated aspects of the sequence: bursts of automatic fire, Tabaco rushing out of the arena with the M-14, efforts to pacify and disarm him, and the subsequent discharge that wounded Raquepo and killed Siriban during the struggle.
  • Physical evidence included spent shells recovered at the scene (Exhs. R and R-1) and the M-14 rifle and magazine recovered from Tabaco, with testimony indicating the magazine had been emptied (though testimony concerning remaining rounds contained some inconsistency).

Defense Case and Version of Events

Accused’s claim of warning shot and involuntary discharge during grapple

  • Accused Tabaco maintained he was ordered by his commanding officer to help maintain peace and order, went to the cockpit arena armed with his issued M-14, and, upon hearing a gunshot above him, fired one warning shot into the air (toward the ceiling). He asserted that following a burst of gunfire from different directions he attempted to leave, holding the rifle muzzle downward.
  • Tabaco claimed that, while he was exiting, Pat. Mariano Retreta grabbed and pressed the rifle downward; during the struggle the gun accidentally discharged, hitting Sgt. Raquepo and Jorge Siriban. He denied shooting the four other victims and asserted surrender the following morning to police authorities over the Siriban incident.

Trial Court Findings

RTC credibility assessment, factual findings, and sentencing

  • The RTC credited the prosecution eyewitnesses as having testified with a ring of truth and found their accounts corroborative and convincing. The court concluded Tabaco was the assailant in the shootings that resulted in the deaths of Arreola, Tabulog, Rigunan, and Regunton, and responsible for Siriban’s death and Raquepo’s wounding. The court relied on eyewitness identification, corroborative testimony of police personnel, physical evidence (spent shells; condition of the recovered rifle and magazine), and forensic observations (bullet trajectories and possible ricochet).
  • The RTC treated the killings of the four seated victims as a complex crime prosecuted in one information and imposed a single sentence of reclusion perpetua (maximum period) under the theory that a single act constituted multiple grave felonies (citing Article 248 in the dispositive and Article 48 principles in the opinion). It also sentenced Tabaco for Homicide with Frustrated Homicide (Crim. Case No. 10‑316) to an indeterminate penalty (Prision Mayor minimum to Reclusion Temporal maximum) and ordered civil indemnities and forfeiture of the M-14 rifle. The RTC credited preventive imprisonment from March 23, 1987, subject to specified conditions.

Standard of Review on Credibility

Deference to trial court and the appellate approach

  • On appeal the Supreme Court emphasized the settled rule that findings on credibility made by the trial court, which observed witnesses directly, are generally accorded great weight and will not be disturbed unless there is a significant fact or circumstance overlooked or misinterpreted in the record. The Court applied this standard and found no reason to overturn the RTC’s credibility determinations as to eyewitnesses who positively identified Tabaco.

Supreme Court Analysis of Guilt

Affirmation of conviction for the charged offenses

  • After reviewing the testimonial and physical evidence, the Supreme Court found no reversible error in the RTC’s determination that Tabaco was the perpetrator of the four murders and the homicide with frustrated homicide. The Court noted that positive eyewitness identifications supported by corroborative testimony and physical evidence outweighed the accused’s bare denial and exculpatory account. The Court applied statutory criminal-liability principles (including Article 4 of the Revised Penal Code) to hold Tabaco responsible for the consequences of his felonious acts even if some injuries were assertedly unintended.

Central Legal Issue: Single versus Multiple Penalties

Whether Article 48 (complex crime) applied to the four murders

  • The Supreme Court focused on whether the four killings resulting from Tabaco’s firing constituted a complex (or compound) crime subject to a single penalty under Article 48, or whether each death corresponded to a separate crime requiring separate penalties. The RTC had imposed a single reclusion perpetua on the theory that the four victims were felled by one single act or a continuous burst of fire constituting a complex crime.

Comparison with Precedents and Application

Distinguishing Pama and aligning with Desierto, Pineda, and related doctrine

  • The Supreme Court rejected the trial court’s application of the compound/complex-crime rationale (as in Pama) because Pama concerned a single projectile that caused multiple deaths; by contrast, the evidence in Tabaco’s case established multiple bullets and multiple shots from an automatic weapon (the M-14), with spent shells and an emptied magazine corroborating continuous automatic fire producing separate missile impacts.
  • The Court invoked People v. Desierto and People v. Pineda to underscore that when separate shots (and therefore separate bullets) cause distinct deaths or injuries, each fatality or injury is attributable to a distinct criminal act and the crimes are separate and distinct for sentencing purposes. The Court emphasized the governing principle: Article 48 requires singularity of the criminal act (a single act producing multiple felonies), and where different bullets are responsible for separate deaths, singularity of act is absent. The Court also cited People v. Pardo and People v. Lawas to distinguish situations where consolidation or single penalties may be appropriate (for example, where it is impossible to attribute individual deaths to individual perpetrators), a circumstance not present here.

Supreme Court Holding on Sentencing

Modification of punishment: multiple reclusion perpetua sentences imposed

  • The Supreme Court affirmed Tabaco’s convictions but held that the four murders were separate offenses, not a single complex crime. Accordingly, the Court modified the RTC’s sentencing by imposing four separate sentences of reclusion perpetua (one for each murder count) instead of a single reclusion perpetua for all four murders.
  • The Court also affirmed the RTC sentence for Homicide with Frustrated Homicide (Crim. Case No. 10‑316), impo
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