CASE NO.

89
ARTICLE XI: Justifying Circumstances
Self-Defense; Unlawful Aggression
People vs. Bayocot, G.R. No. 55285

MAIN POINT:
Unlawful aggression presupposes an actual, sudden, and unexpected attack, or
imminent danger thereof, and not merely a threatening or intimidating attitude.

FACTS:
Gracia Dumont, Ananias Aro and Maximo Daro, Jr. went to the Municipal Court of
Sierra Bullones, Bohol, for the hearing of the two cases against Donato Bayocot, father
of the accused: One case involved grave threats, in which Bayocot threatened Ananias
Aro and Mrs. Dumont with serious bodily harm when their cows ate and destroyed the
cassava plants planted, and the other case involved contempt of court for disobeying a
judgment of ejectment by the Municipal Court.

On their way back to the farmhouse, while riding on a sled which was pulled by a
carabao, Mrs. Dumont saw a person who was wearing boots and a red raincoat with a
hood over his head, appeared leaving from the farmhouse and coming towards the sled.
Mrs. Dumont, bothered by the fact that the person was trespassing inside her property
without her authority and permission, asked the person the reason for his presence and
what he wanted from her. Ananias Aro recognized the person to be the son of Donato
Bayocot, Sixto Bayocot, and realized that he had a bolo hidden inside his raincoat so he
went to Mrs. Dumont and made her step down from the sled. Sixto Bayocot then
stabbed her with a long bolo at the back, and stabbed her again on the chest. Later on,
Sixto Bayocot surrendered to the police and admitted that he killed Mrs. Dumont out of
desperation because his mother had become sickly due to the cases filed by Mrs.
Dumont against his father. He also claims that Mrs. Dumont purportedly acted as
though she were drawing something from her bag like a gun and that he had to protect
himself from being shot and killed.

ISSUE:
Whether Sixto Bayocot can invoke self-defense for killing Mrs. Dumont.

RULING:
No. Under Article XI of the Revised Penal Code, self-defense is a justifying
circumstance and its first requisite is that there should be an unlawful aggression on the
part of person injured or killed by the accused. The presence of unlawful aggression is a
condition sine qua non; it is an indispensable requisite. There can be no self-defense,
complete or incomplete, unless the victim has committed an unlawful aggression
against the person defending himself.

In the case at bar, there was no unlawful aggression by Mrs. Dumont. Even the
testimony of Sixto Bayocot that upon meeting Mrs. Dumont and her companions, he
was scolded by her and the latter "acted as if she was getting something from her bag,"
falls far short of the unlawful aggression compelled by law as the starting point of self-
defense. The mere thought or apprehension by the appellant that Mrs. Dumont had a
hidden firearm which she was about to draw out from her bag is a flimsy justification for
what he did and is totally unacceptable. Unlawful aggression presupposes an actual,
sudden, and unexpected attack, or imminent danger thereof, and not merely a
threatening or intimidating attitude. The act of Mrs. Dumont is far from the unlawful
aggression contemplated by the law. Indeed, an inspection of the contents of the bag of
Mrs. Dumont revealed that there was no firearm, nor was Mrs. Dumont known to have
ever carried one.

CONCLUSION:
The requisite of unlawful aggression is an indispensable requisite. There being no
unlawful aggression committed by Mrs. Dumont against Sixto Bayocot, the justifying
circumstance of self-defense cannot be invoked. The killing of Mrs. Dumont cannot be
legally justified. The Court finds Sixto Bayocot guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the
crime of Murder.