Source: http://lawlibrary.chanrobles.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81661:gr-170863-2013&catid=1568&Itemid=566
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 09:55:13+00:00

Document:
ENGR. ANTHONY V. ZAPANTA, Petitioner, v.PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Respondent.
We resolve the petition for review on certiorari1 filed by petitioner Engr. Anthony V. Zapanta, challenging the June 27, 2005 decision2 and the November 24, 2005 resolution3 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. CR No. 28369. The CA decision affirmed the January 12, 2004 decision4 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Baguio City, Branch 3, in Criminal Case No. 20109-R, convicting the petitioner of the crime of qualified theft. The CA resolution denied the petitioner's motion for reconsideration.
Arraigned on November 12, 2002, the petitioner entered a plea of "not guilty."6 Loyao remains at-large.
In the ensuing trial, the prosecution offered in evidence the oral testimonies of Danilo Bernardo, Edgardo Cano, Roberto Buen, Efren Marcelo, private complainant Engr. Lorna Marigondon, and Apolinaria de Jesus,7 as well as documentary evidence consisting of a security logbook entry, delivery receipts, photographs, letters, and sworn affidavits. The prosecution's pieces of evidence, taken together, established the facts recited below.
In its January 12, 2004 decision,12 the RTC convicted the petitioner of qualified theft. It gave credence to the prosecution witnesses' straightforward and consistent testimonies and rejected the petitioner's bare denial. It sentenced the petitioner to suffer the penalty of imprisonment from 10 years and 3 months, as minimum, to 20 years, as maximum, to indemnify Anmar P2,269,731.69, with legal interest from November 2001 until full payment, and to pay Engr. Marigondon P100,000.00 as moral damages.
In its June 27, 2005 decision,14 the CA brushed aside the petitioner's arguments and affirmed the RTC's decision convicting the petitioner of qualified theft. It found that the prosecution witnesses' testimonies deserve full credence in the absence of any improper motive to testify falsely against the petitioner. It noted that the petitioner admitted his status as Anmar's employee and his receipt of salary from Anmar, not AMCGS. It rejected the petitioner's defense of denial for being self-serving. It, however, deleted the award of moral damages to Engr. Marigondon for lack of justification.
When the CA denied15 the motion for reconsideration16 that followed, the petitioner filed the present Rule 45 petition.
The petitioner submits that, while the information charged him for acts committed "sometime in the month of October, 2001," he was convicted for acts not covered by the information, i.e., November 2001, thus depriving him of his constitutional right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him. He further argues that the prosecution failed to establish the fact of the loss of the steel beams since the corpus delicti was never identified and offered in evidence.
The respondent People of the Philippines, through the Office of the Solicitor General, counters that the issues raised by the petitioner in the petition pertain to the correctness of the calibration of the evidence by the RTC, as affirmed by the CA, which are issues of fact, not of law, and beyond the ambit of a Rule 45 petition. In any case, the respondent contends that the evidence on record indubitably shows the petitioner's liability for qualified theft.
The case presents to us the issue of whether the CA committed a reversible error in affirming the RTC's decision convicting the petitioner of the crime of qualified theft.
Section 6. Sufficiency of complaint or information. - A complaint or information is sufficient if it states the name of the accused; the designation of the offense given by the statute; the acts or omissions complained of as constituting the offense; the name of the offended party; the approximate date of the commission of the offense; and the place where the offense was committed.
Conformably with these provisions, when the date given in the complaint is not of the essence of the offense, it need not be proven as alleged; thus, the complaint will be sustained if the proof shows that the offense was committed at any date within the period of the statute of limitations and before the commencement of the action.
In this case, the petitioner had been fully apprised of the charge of qualified theft since the information stated the approximate date of the commission of the offense through the words "sometime in the month of October, 2001." The petitioner could reasonably deduce the nature of the criminal act with which he was charged from a reading of the contents of the information, as well as gather by such reading whatever he needed to know about the charge to enable him to prepare his defense.
We stress that the information did not have to state the precise date when the offense was committed, as to be inclusive of the month of "November 2001" since the date was not a material element of the offense. As such, the offense of qualified theft could be alleged to be committed on a date as near as possible to the actual date of its commission.17 Clearly, the month of November is the month right after October.
All these elements are present in this case. The prosecution's evidence proved, through the prosecution's eyewitnesses, that upon the petitioner's instruction, several pieces of wide flange steel beams had been delivered, twice in October 2001 and once in November 2001, along Marcos Highway and Mabini Street, Baguio City; the petitioner betrayed the trust and confidence reposed on him when he, as project manager, repeatedly took construction materials from the project site, without the authority and consent of Engr. Marigondon, the owner of the construction materials.
The petitioner argues that his conviction was improper because the alleged stolen beams or corpus delicti had not been established. He asserts that the failure to present the alleged stolen beams in court was fatal to the prosecution's cause.
The petitioner's argument fails to persuade us.
In this case, the testimonial and documentary evidence on record fully established the corpus delicti. The positive testimonies of the prosecution witnesses, particularly Bernardo, Cano and Buen, stating that the petitioner directed them to unload the steel beams along Marcos Highway and Mabini Street on the pretext of a new Anmar project, were crucial to the petitioner's conviction. The security logbook entry, delivery receipts and photographs proved the existence and the unloading of the steel beams to a different location other than the project site.
The RTC, as affirmed by the CA, sentenced the petitioner to suffer the penalty of imprisonment from 10 years and three months, as minimum, to 20 years, as maximum, and to indemnify Anmar P2,269,731.69, with legal interest from November 2001 until full payment. Apparently, the RTC erred in failing to specify the appropriate name of the penalty imposed on the petitioner.
To compute the penalty, we begin with the value of the stolen steel beams, which is P2,269,731.69. Based on Article 309 of the RPC, since the value of the items exceeds P22,000.00, the basic penalty is prision mayor in its minimum and medium periods, to be imposed in the maximum period, which is eight years, eight months and one day to 10 years of prision mayor.
To determine the additional years of imprisonment, we deduct P22,000.00 from P2,269,731.69, which gives us P2,247,731.69. This resulting figure should then be divided by P10,000.00, disregarding any amount less than P10,000.00. We now have 224 years that should be added to the basic penalty. However, the imposable penalty for simple theft should not exceed a total of 20 years. Therefore, had petitioner committed simple theft, the penalty would be 20 years of reclusion temporal. As the penalty for qualified theft is two degrees higher, the correct imposable penalty is reclusion perpetua.
The petitioner should thus be convicted of qualified theft with the corresponding penalty of reclusion perpetua.
WHEREFORE, we hereby DENY the appeal. The June 27, 2005 decision and the November 24, 2005 resolution of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. CR No. 28369 are AFFIRMED with MODIFICATION. Petitioner Engr. Anthony V. Zapanta is sentenced to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua. Costs against the petitioner.
17 See People v. Dion, G.R. NO. 181035, July 4, 2011, 653 SCRA 117, 131. See also People v.
Ching, G.R. NO. 177150, November 22, 2007, 538 SCRA 117, 129; People v. Domingo, G.R. NO. 177744, November 23, 2007, 538 SCRA 733, 738; and People v. Ibañez, G.R. NO. 174656, May 11, 2007, 523 SCRA 136, 142.
22 People v. Mirto, G.R. NO. 193479, October 19, 2011, 659 SCRA 796, 814; Astudillo v. People, 538 Phil. 786, 815 (2006); and People v. Mercado, 445 Phil. 813, 828 (2003).

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