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People v. Aquino
People v. Aquino
People v. Aquino
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* SECOND DIVISION.
852
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853
him, and thereafter he left her in the belief that she was already dead. The
victim did not immediately die. In the clinic of Dr. Serafin Padlan in the
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poblacion, Pat. Armando Frias saw the victim with her head bleeding. He
took the statement of the victim in the local dialect. Thereafter, he translated
the statement to English and reduced it into writing. The statement disclosed
the identity of appellant. That same evening, the victim was still brought to
the Virgen Milagrosa Medical Center where she was treated. She was
serious but still conscious, and was able to narrate to Dr. Saturnino Posadas
what happened to her. She died the following morning.
REGALADO, J.:
854
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thereof the said accused did then and there, wilfully, unlawfully and
feloniously strike her with the use of stone which directly cause (sic) the
death of Carmelita Morado alias ‘Carmen’ to the damage and prejudice of
her heirs. 1
“Contrary to Art. 335 in relation to Art. 249 of the Revised Penal Code.”
In a motion dated June 26, 1987, counsel for appellant moved for the
indefinite suspension of the trial and asked 2for the commitment of
the accused to the National Mental Hospital. In its order dated July
1, 1987, the trial court granted the motion and held3 in abeyance the
arraignment of the accused and the trial of the case. On January 26,
1988, the National Center for Mental Health submitted the clinical
4
case report on the mental and physical condition of appellant. He
was later returned to the custody
5
of the court for trial and was
arraigned on April 27, 1988.
The material and established facts of this case, as well as the
points in dispute between the parties, having been succinctly but
thoroughly summarized by the Solicitor General, we are minded to
quote at length therefrom.
“On the night of February 13, 1987, Armando Frias, while on duty as
member of the Integrated National Police of Urbiztondo, Pangasinan,
received a report that there was a victim of a crime in the clinic of
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855
Dr. Padlan in the poblacion. He proceeded to the clinic and found the victim
lying down with her head bleeding. He asked her how she felt and when she
replied that she was weak, he took her ante-mortem statement (TSN,
November 4, 1988, pp. 3-5). The victim, Carmelita Morado, 18 years old,
told Frias that she was raped and struck with a stone by Juanito Aquino,
appellant herein. Frias took down her statement which was duly witnessed
by attending physician Dr. Padlan and Capt. Eddie Ramos. The written
statement was also thumbmarked by Carmelita Morado (TSN, pp. 3-5, 8,
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10, November 4, 1988, Armando Frias). Pat. Jaime Datuin and Pat. Renato
Solomon were also among the people who were present when Frias took the
statement of the victim. After the victim gave her statement she shouted that
she be taken to the hospital because she was weak. (Id., p. 9). Carmelita
Morado was taken to the Virgen Milagrosa Medical Center in San Carlos
City and admitted at 11:35 p.m. of that same evening in serious condition.
Dr. Saturnino Posadas, director of said Medical Center, testified that
Carmelita Morado sustained the following injuries;
856
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translate the same to appellant to ensure that appellant understood what was
written. Judge Austria made appellant sign the statement in his presence
(TSN, pp. 21-23, August 24, 1988).
“However, after the complaint was filed but before appellant could be
arraigned, a Motion to Commit appellant to the National Center for Mental
Health, as earlier mentioned, was filed by appellant’s counsel as appellant
was allegedly manifesting unstable behavior with fits of violence. Appellant
was duly committed sometime in July, 1987. He was released in 1988
whereupon he was duly arraigned. Appellant pleaded ‘not guilty’ and put up
the defense of insanity.
“To prove insanity, appellant presented Dr. Nicanor L. Echavez, a
psychiatrist at the National Center for Mental Health who was in charge of
the pavilion where appellant was committed. After Juanito Aquino was
admitted to the mental hospital in July 1987, he conducted physical, mental
and psychological examinations and found him to be suffering from mental
disorder classified under organic mental disorder with psychosis (TSN, pp.
4-5, 7, May 23, 1988). Dr. Echavez was of the opinion that when appellant
Juanito Aquino committed the heinous act, the latter was totally deprived of
mind (supra at pp. 15-16).
“Patricio Aquino, appellant’s father, also testified that his son was
already mentally ill even when he was still young. Appellant was suspended
from school because he was very playful, overactive and naughty especially
with his classmates (TSN, p. 4, May 24, 1988); that appellant was cruel to
his brothers and sisters, stole his mother’s jewelry which he sold for a low
sum, wandered sometimes naked, and oftentimes not coming home for
extended periods of time (supra at pp. 5, 8). Appellant was previously
confined at the Mental Hospital in 1985 when he was caught wandering
around naked (supra at p. 10).
“Sgt. Raymundo Lomboy, the police officer charged with appellant’s
custody and who transferred appellant for commitment to the National
Center for Mental Health, recalled that while appellant was in his custody,
appellant acted abnormally by singing, shouting, dancing and generally
disturbing the other inmates (TSN, p. 7, July 21, 1988). After appellant was
treated and released from the National Center for Mental Health, he acted
queerly by singing and shouting whenever he failed to drink his medicine
(supra at p. 15).
857
After trial on the merits, the court a quo rendered its verdict
convicting appellant of the crime of rape with homicide and
sentenced him to suffer life imprisonment and to indemnify7
the heirs
of the deceased in the amount of P35,000.00 as damages.
Appellant, through counsel, manifested his intention to ap-
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858
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The controversy boils down into one issue, that is, whether or not
appellant, who has invoked insanity as his defense, has overcome
the presumption of sanity.
Sanity being the normal condition of the human mind, the
prosecution may proceed in the first instance upon the presumption
that the defendant was sane and responsible when the act was
committed. The presumption is always in favor 10
of sanity and the
burden of proof of insanity is on the defense. The basis for the
presumption of sanity is well explained by the United States 11
Supreme Court in the leading case of Davis vs. United States, in
this wise: “If that presumption were not indulged, the government
would always be under the necessity of adducing affirmative
evidence of the sanity of an accused. But a requirement of that
character would seriously delay and embarrass the enforcement of
the laws against crime and in most cases be unnecessary.
Consequently, the law presumes that everyone charged with crime is
sane and thus, supplies in the first instance the required proof of
capacity to commit crime.”
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________________
860
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861
Now, it has long been settled that the period to which an inquiry
into the mental state of the accused should be directed is that
transpiring immediately before
21
and/or at the very moment of the act
or acts under prosecution. In the eyes of the law, insanity exists
when there is a complete deprivation of intelligence in committing
the act, that is, the accused is deprived of reason, he acts without the
least discernment because there is complete absence of the power to
discern, or there is total deprivation of the freedom of the will. Mere
abnormality of the mental faculties will not exclude imputability.
The onus probandi rests upon whoever invokes insanity as an
exempting22 circumstance and must prove it by clear and positive
evidence.
Insanity itself is a condition, not a thing. It is not susceptible of
the usual means of proof and to this fact is due the unusual difficulty
of making proof of its existence and measuring its effect, when once
proven to exist. As no man can look into the mind of another, the
state of such mind can only be measured as the same is reflected in
the actions of the body it is created to govern. Thus, we have held
that mind can only be known by outward acts. Thereby we read the
thoughts, the motives and emotions of a person and come to
determine whether his acts
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20 People vs. Cruz, 109 Phil. 288 (1960); People vs. Bonoan, 64 Phil. 87 (1937);
U.S. vs. Guevarra, 27 Phil. 547 (1914).
21 People vs. Aldemita, ante.
22 People vs. Cruz, G.R. No. 69251, Sept. 13, 1989; People vs. Ambal, 100 SCRA
325 (1980); People vs. Renegado, supra.
862
Virgen Milagrosa Medical Center where she was treated. She was
serious but still conscious, and was able to narrate to Dr. Saturnino
27
Posadas what happened to her. She died the following morning.
The evidence adduced for appellant that he was insane
immediately before or at the very moment the crime was committed
is too nebulous and conjectural to be convincing. While Dr. Nicanor
L. Echavez of the National Center for Mental Health described the
mental illness28
of the accused as “organic mental disorder with
psychosis,” he admitted that a person suffering
29
from insanity may
know that what he is doing is wrong. The same witness also
testified 30that there is no possibility of appellant having lucid
intervals, but he, however,31
also observed that the mental illness of
appellant came on and off.
The clinical case report also shows that appellant, when
interviewed upon his admission to the mental institution, re-
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863
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One more thing. The trial court imposed the penalty of life
imprisonment on appellant. In a judgment of conviction for a felony,
the court should specify the appropriate name of the penalty, which
in this case should be reclusion perpetua and not life imprisonment,
since under the scheme of penalties in the Revised Penal Code the
principal penalty for a felony has its own specific duration and
corresponding accessory penalties, unlike those generally provided
for crimes in special laws.
WHEREFORE, with the modification that the principal penalty
imposed on appellant is reclusion perpetua, and the reduction of the
civil indemnity to P30,000.00 in line with prevailing jurisprudence,
the judgment of the trial court is hereby AFFIRMED.
SO ORDERED.
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864
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