People of the Philippines v.

Romil Marcos
212 SCRA 478 August 21, 1992
Gutierrez, J.:

Facts:
Marcos was arrested for violation of RA 6425 when the Narcom Agents conducted their
buy-bust operation. During the arraignment, marcos pleaded not guilty. After the trial on
merits, Marcos was found guilty by the court and was sentenced to imprisonment. During the
trial, the court gave credence to the said buy-bust operation where marcos was arreseted. In
his defense (Marcos) he alleged that he was not the object of the operation and was later
arreseted because he refused to testify against Ballena who was the actual subject of the
operation.

Issue:
Whether testimonies not properly offered at the time witness called to testify is deemed
admitted when offered during formal offer of documentary evidence and no objection is made
Ruling:
Yes. The court held that their testimonies were not formally offered at the time the said
witnesses were called to testify. However, the records reveal that the testimonies of the
prosecution witnesses were offered during the formal offer of documentary evidence by the
prosecuting Fiscal. The appellant did not object to such offer. In such a case, we rule that the
appellant is now estopped from questioning the inclusion of the subject testimonies by the trial
court in convicting him of the crime charged. At any rate, the appellant was not deprived of any
of his constitutional rights in the inclusion of the subject testimonies. The appellant was not
deprived of his right to cross-examine all these prosecution witnesses.