THE UNITED STATES

vs.
AH CHONG
G.R. No. L-5272 March 19, 1910
FACTS:
Ah Chong, was employed as a cook at "Officers' quarters, No. 27 at the same place Pascual
Gualberto, deceased, was employed as a house boy or muchacho. They jointly occupied a small
room with door that was not furnished with a permanent bolt or lock and occupants, as a measure
of security, had attached a small hook or catch on the inside of the door and were in the habit of
reinforcing this somewhat insecure means of fastening the door by placing against it a chair.
On the night of August 14, 1908, at about 10 o'clock, the defendant, who had received for the
night, was suddenly awakened by some trying to force open the door of the room. He sat up in
bed and called out twice, "Who is there?" He heard no answer and was convinced by the noise at
the door that it was being pushed open by someone bent upon forcing his way into the room. the
defendant, fearing that the intruder was a robber or a thief, leaped to his feet and called out. "If
you enter the room, I will kill you." In the darkness and in confusion the defendant struck out
wildly at the intruder who, it afterwards turned out, was his roommate, Pascual, with the knife
which he kept under his pillow.
Seeing that Pascual was wounded, he called to his employers who slept in the next house

The defendant was charged with the crime of assassination, tried, and found guilty by the trial
court of simple homicide, with extenuating circumstances, and sentenced to six years and one
day presidio mayor, the minimum penalty prescribed by law.

ISSUES:

Shall the defendant be exempt from criminal liability

DISCUSSION:

Article 1 of the Penal Code is as follows:

Crimes or misdemeanors are voluntary (intentional) acts and ommissions punished by

law.

Acts and omissions punished by law are always presumed to be voluntarily unless the
contrary shall appear.

A person voluntarily committing a crime or misdemeanor shall incur criminal liability,

even though the wrongful act committed be different from that which he had intended to
commit.
The first article declared that where there is no intention there is no crime

There can be no crime because of the lack of the necessary element or criminal intention, which
characterizes every action or ommission punished by law; nor is he guilty of criminal negligence.

RULINGS:

The judgment of conviction and the sentence imposed by the trial court should be reversed, and
the defendant acquitted of the crime with which he is charged and his bail bond exonerated, with
the costs of both instance de oficio. So ordered.