G.R. No.

L-47388 October 22, 1940

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee,

vs.
MARIANO R. MARCOS, ET AL., defendants-appellants.

The defendants and appellants in their own behalf.

Office of the Solicitor-General Ozaeta and Solicitor Guerrero for appellee.

FACTS OF THE CASE:

- 1934 – Mariano Marcos & Julio Nalundasan, were rival candidates for the office of Representative for the 2 nd
Districto of Batac, Ilocos Norte. Nalundasan was elected, but his term was cut short as a result of the approval of
the Constitution of the Philippines under the general elections for members of the National Assembly were by
law set for September 17, 1935.

- September 17, 1935 – In these general elections, Mariano Marcos & Nalundasa resumed their rivalry for the
position of assemblyman in the same district. Nalundasan won over Marcos, again.

- September 19, 1935 – Nalundasan celebrated his triumph and paraded in cars & trucks and they passed by the
house of the Marcoses in Batac.

- September 20, 1935 – Nalundasan was shot and killed in his house in Batac.

- After an intensive investigation of the crime by the government entities, Nicasio Layaoen, a businessman of
Bagac, Ilocos Norte was charged of the murder of Nalundasan. Star witness, Gaspar Silvestre, identified
Layaoen as the man who fired the fatal shot at Nalundasan. The Constabulary agents discovered 81 rounds of
ammunition of the brand and class of bullet which is alleged to have killed Nalundasan Though he was acquitted
after trial.

- December 7, 1938 - Mariano Marcos, Pio Marcos, Ferdinand Marcos and Quirino Lizardo were prosecuted for
the crime of murder of Nalundasan.

- June 10, 1939 – the abovementioned Marcoses charged Calixto Aguinaldo (trusted and loyal attendant of one
of the defendants Quirino Lizardo, principal witness for the prosecution) with the offense of false testimony.

ISSUES OF THE CASE

(1) Credibility of Calixto Aguinaldo as a witness for the prosecution

According to Calixto Aguinaldo, he was present in the various stages of the conspiracy and he had
participated in the commission of the offense. The pretended loyalty of Aguinaldo to Quirino Lizardo is
conspicuously disproved by the circumstance that, as the prosecution itself admits, although he was asked to
watch, he returned to the house of the Marcoses before Ferdinand Marcos and Quirino Lizardo has executed the
alleged fatal act.

It is hard to believe that either the Marcoses or Quirino Lizardo would allow themselves to commit the
stupidity of permitting Calixto Aguinaldo, who was a stranger to the Marcoses and who, as already stated, had
reason to be antagonistic to Lizardo, to know their alleged plan to kill Nalundasan and of later asking Aguinaldo to
merely play the insignificant, nay unnecessary, role of watcher, unless it was the intention of the defendant herein
to facilitate the discovery of the alleged crime and to preserve the only means of their conviction.

(2) Whether or not the theory of the prosecution as to why Ferdinand Marcos was selected as triggerman is true

Ferdinand Marcos was allegedly selected because (1) he is experienced in pistol shooting and (2)
because he was below 18 years of age and, if discovered and convicted, he would just be sent to a reformatory
school. As regards to the 2nd reason, both the prosecution and the defense agree that Ferdinand Marcos was
 already over 18 years old at the time of the commission of the alleged offense. The theory that Ferdinand was
chosen to be the trigger man because of minority must therefore be decidedly false.

RULING:

Quirino Lizardo, Mariano Marcos, Pio Marcos, Ferdinand Marcos, were adjudged guilty of contempt (offense of
being disrespectful to a court of law) and sentenced to pay P50.00 each, with subsidiary imprisonment in case of
insolvency.

(They were guilty of contempt because they filed separate complaints against Calixto Aguinaldo while the latter is
being cross-examined. The 4 of them should have waited for the termination of the principal case in the lower court before
filing the charges against Calixto Aguinaldo.)