People v.

Feliciano
May 5, 2014 | Leonen, J.
Pajarillo, Joseph David | Legal History | A4

FACTS:
December 8, 1994: At around 12:30 PM to 1:00 PM, 7 members of the Sigma Rho fraternity
were eating lunch at the Beach house Canteen near the Main Library of the University of the
Philippines, Diliman, when they were attacked by masked men wielding baseball bats and lead
pipes. While several of them sustained injuries and required hospitalization, one of them,
Dennis Venturina, died from the injuries he sustained.
Cases for murder, attempted murder, and frustrated murder were filed against several
members of the Scintilla Juris fraternity.
According to several of the assaulted Sigma Rhoans, they were assaulted by members of the
Scintilla Juris fraternity, whom they recognized when some of their masks slipped during the
assault, or else recognized them despite their masks.
The petitioners also claimed to have identified some of their assailants when they glanced
behind them at the incident as they ran away.
The defendants presented witnesses who testified that none of the masked men were
identifiable by virtue of their masks; and that none of these masks slipped and exposed the
assailants faces.
Several of the defendants produced alibis which placed them away from the school at the time
of the incident.
A total of 11 witnesses were presented by the prosecution and 42 for the defense.
The RTC found Robert Michael Alvir, Danilo Feliciano, Jr., Christopher Soliva, Julius Victor
Medalla and Warren Zingapan guilty beyond reasonable doubt of murder and attempted
murder. Reynaldo Ablanida, Carlo Jolette Fajardo, Gilbert Magpantay, George Morano, and
Raymund Narag were aquitted.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the RTC.


ISSUE:
WON the RTC and CA correctly ruled on the basis of the evidence that the accused-appellants
were sufficiently identified. YES.



RATIONALE:
As a rule, the findings of the trial court are given great weight and credence.
o The sheer number of witnesses point to the fact that the trial court did not act
arbitrarily, or that the decision was arrived at without study.
Despite the conflicting accounts by the defendants, several of the defendants-appellants were
identified by the majority, and the slight incongruities in the accounts of the former were
excusable considering the swiftness of the incident.
o A perfect narration would have been more indicative of falsehood.
The belated identification of the defendants-appellants by the victims did not in any way affect
the formers positive identification.
o The victims could have chosen to confer with their other brothers before making any
statements.
o The delay also afforded the victims time to recover from their injuries.
o It was reasonable to believe that the NBI was better equipped to deal with the
investigation, and as such, the victims were justified in reporting the incident to the
former rather than the latter.
The defendant-appellants alibis cannot prevail over the positive identification of the victims.
The fact was that if the victims were making things up, they could easily have identified more
members of the Scintilla Juris fraternity. As it was, they only agreed on the presence of a
number of them, and there were still slight variations in their versions of events.