Title:

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Plaintiff-Appellee, vs.

TEOPISTA CANJA,Defendant-Appellant.

Citation:
G.R. No. L-2800
May 30, 1950
BENGZON, J.
Nature of the Action:
Action for an appeal.

Facts:
Teopista Canja has been maltreated by her husband Pedto Jongque; apart from beating
her, he squandered their money and kept a woman. Pedro got the drinking habit that
sometimes led him to lay violent hands on his wife. One nightm, Pedro arrived from the
tuba-drinking place and very drunk, he immediately boxed the stomach of Teopista,
without any reason. After dinner and going out he hit her again and Teopista felt utmost
resentment against him. That night she took she got a hammer and a chisel and struck
his head and face until he was dead. As her defense, Teopista stated that she woke up
when a man was strangulating her and to defend herself grabbed a piece of wood and
struck the assailant twice and later on learned that it was her husband. She invoked
self-defense
Issue:
Whether or not accused is guilty of parricide.

Ruling:
Wherefore, inasmuch as the penalty imposed on appellant is in accordance with the law
( Article 246, Revised Penal Code), the appealed judgment is affirmed, with costs.

Ratio Decidendi:
Self-defense was incorrectly invoked by the accused, because the wounds found on the
head of the dead man could not have been the effect of two strokes with a blunt
instrument; she never mentioned the piece of wood to the chief of police; she pleaded
guilty at the preliminary; on the basis of her daughter’s testimony against her. Appellant
must be declared to have feloniously extinguished the life of her husband. He may have
been unworthy. He may have been a rascal and a bully; but that is no excuse for
murdering him. His badness is not even a mitigating circumstance