People vs.

Pilones 84 SCRA 167

FACTS: This case arose out of a criminal case for murder and frustrated murder filed against Manuel
Pilones for allegedly killing Renolla and Illagan who was, at the time of the incident, at a wake or vigil for
the dead.

Shortly after midnight of that evening in the vigil, stones were cast upon the building prompting
Illagan to go out and determine who was doing such act. As soon as he reached a street light across the
place of the wake, he was shot on the knee and saw his assailant as his face was illuminated by street
lights. Shortly afterwards Renolla came to the rescue but was proved futile as he was shot on the head
while he was trying to lift Illagan.

Illagan was treated in the hospital for 2 weeks but Renolla was pronounced dead on arrival.
Days later Illagan was arrested for vagrancy and upon arrival at the police station he recognized one of
the officers as their assailant on the night Renolla died. As the wife of Renolla came along with Illagan in
the police office she likewise identified the same officer Illlagan was pointing at as the assailant of her
husband.

After being fingered by Illagan on the police station, Manuel Pilones did not make any
comments or statements. Accused Manuel relied on alibi which the RTC rejected, hence this appeal to
the SC.

ISSUE: WON the accused was properly convicted

RULING: The SC ruled in favor of Illagan and Renolla’s wife and upheld the decision of the RTC.

The decisive fact is that Pilones was not only Identified by Ilagan but at the confrontation in the
police precinct between accuser and accused, Pilones, as the accused, just kept silent and did not deny
Ilagan's accusation and the Identification made by Renolia's mother. "He who remains silent when he
ought to speak cannot be heard to speak when he should be silent"

Silence is assent as well as consent, and may, where a direct and specific accusation of crime is
made, be regarded under some circumstances as a quasi-confession. An innocent person will at once
naturally and emphatically repel an accusation of crime, as a matter of self-preservation and self-
defense, and as a precaution against prejudicing himself. A person's silence, therefore, particularly when
it is persistent, will justify an inference that he is not innocent.