Source: http://lawlibrary.chanrobles.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=40394:g-r-no-138402-august-18,-2000-people-of-the-phil-v-arnold-gonzales&amp;catid=1396&amp;Itemid=566
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 18:39:57+00:00

Document:
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ARNOLD GONZALES alias "ANOD", Accused-Appellant.
Leolito was asleep on the bench. Presumably, it was while he was sleeping that someone with a dagger snuffed out his life.
There were no eyewitnesses to the actual stabbing. The prosecution thus had the task of knitting the pieces of evidence together into a thriving whole. An accusing finger was pointed at Gonzales, as he was the last person seen with Leolito before he was stabbed dead.
"CAUSE OF DEATH:	ACUTE BLOOD LOSS SECONDARY TO MULTIPLE STAB WOUNDS"
"That on August 18, 1996 at Barangay Meohao, Municipality of Kidapawan, Province of Cotabato, Philippines, the said accused, armed with a bladed weapon, with intent to kill, did then and there willfully, unlawfully, feloniously and with treachery, attack, assault and stab LEOLITO PAQUELET, thereby hitting and inflicting upon the latter multiple stab wounds on the different parts of his body, which is the cause of his death thereafter.
"Prescinding from the foregoing facts and considerations, the Court finds, the accused ARNOLD GONZALES guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime charged, he is hereby sentenced to suffer the penalty of Reclusion Perpetua. Consonant with the recent jurisprudence, he is hereby ordered to indemnify the heirs of Leolito Paquelet the sum of P50,000.00.
(1)	Shortly after the crime was committed, Gonzales admitted to a certain Juny Habla that he stabbed the victim.
The utterance could have very well been a part of the res gestae. 14 It is not uncommon for one who is confronted with a startling occurrence to panic and seek the help of an acquaintance or even a stranger.
(2)	Gonzales was the last person to be seen with the victim before he died.
Remegia categorically stated that shortly before the victim was stabbed, she saw Gonzales with Leolito on a bench outside her store.
(3)	Upon discovering that the victim had died (from the stab wounds), Gonzales uttered a statement, displaying apathy inconsistent with innocence.
The indifferent and unperturbed tenor of the statement is significant. It is not normal for one who innocently chances upon a dead man, lying in his own pool of blood to nonchalantly shrug it off and announce that he will just report (it) tomorrow." Such apathy is inconsistent with innocence.
The non-presentation of the blood-stained shirt in evidence, being merely corroborative of other evidence on record, is not fatal to the prosecution’s case.
In our mind, the four aforementioned circumstances form an unbroken chain of events leading to one fair conclusion: 31 that Gonzales perpetrated the crime.
Leolito’s mother, Rosita Paquelet, testified that her son’s untimely death caused her shock. 40 An award of moral damages in the amount of P50,000.00 is justified.
WHEREFORE, the decision of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 17, Kidapawan City, is AFFIRMED with MODIFICATION. Accused-appellant Arnold Gonzales is found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of HOMICIDE defined and penalized under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code and in the absence of any modifying circumstance, is sentenced to an indeterminate penalty of ten (10) years of prision mayor, as minimum, to seventeen (17) years and four (4) months of reclusion temporal, as maximum. Accused-appellant is further ordered. to pay the heirs of Leolito Paquelet, moral damages in the amount of P50,000.00 and civil indemnity in the amount of P50,000.00.
Costs against accused-appellant in both instances.
1.	In Criminal Case No. 114-96, dated December 15, 1998, Judge Rodolfo Serrano, presiding.
2.	TSN, May 22, 1997, pp. 5-9.
3.	Regional Trial Court Record, 12.
5.	Regional Trial Court Record, p. 18.
10.	People v. Santos, G.R. No. 122935, May 31, 2000.
11.	People v. Ramos, 240 SCRA 191 (1995).
12.	TSN, April 21, 1998, pp. 3-5.
13.	Rule 130, Sec. 26, Revised Rules on Evidence.
14.	Statements made by a person while a startling occurrence is taking place or immediately prior or subsequent thereto with respect to the circumstances thereof, may be given in evidence as part of the res gestae. So, also, statements accompanying an equivocal act material to the issue, and giving it legal significance, may be received as part of the res gestae (Rule 130, Sec. 42, Revised Rules on Evidence).
15.	People v. Villamor, 292 SCRA 384 (1998).
16.	People v. Paynor, 261 SCRA 615, 626 (1996); People v. Alfeche, 294 SCRA 352 (1997); People v. Dacibar, G.R. No. 111286, February 17, 2000.
17.	TSN, April 21, 1998, p. 6.
18.	People v. Zuela, G.R. No. 112177, January 28, 2000.
19.	People v. Norona, G.R. No. 132192, March 13, 2000.
20.	G.R No. 122935, May 31, 2000.
22.	TSN, May 22, 1997, p. 7.
23.	People v. Alberca, 257 SCRA 613, 632 (1996).
24.	People v. Arsenal, 295 SCRA 231, 243 (1998).
25.	TSN, July 1, 1997, pp. 6-10; TSN, January 15, 1998, pp. 4-9.
26.	People v. Atad, 266 SCRA 262 (1997).
27.	People v. Diaz, 262 SCRA 723, 733 (1996); People v. Vereno, 264 SCRA 546, 557 (1996).
28.	TSN, January 15, 1998, p. 10.
29.	People v. Delmendo, 296 SCRA 371 (1997).
30.	People v. Sison, G.R. No. 123183, January 19, 2000.
32.	People v. Magana, 259 SCRA 380, 400 (1996).
33.	People v. Bracamonte, 257 SCRA 384 (1996).
34.	People v. Sarabia, 266 SCRA 471 (1997).
36.	People v. Sumaoy, 263 SCRA 460, 469 (1996); People v. Pantorilla, G.R. No. 122739, January 19, 2000.
37.	Art. 249, Revised Penal Code.
38.	People v. Santos, G.R. No. 122935, May 31, 2000.
40.	TSN, April 21, 1998, pp. 7-10.
41.	People v. Janairo, 311 SCRA 58, 79 (1999); People v. Forca, G.R. No. 134938, June 8, 2000; People v. Saragina, G.R. No. 128281, May 30, 2000, citing People v. Silvestre, 307 SCRA 68 (1999).
42.	People v. Baluran, G.R. No. 11394, February 15, 2000; People v. Tolibas, G.R. No. 103506, February 15, 2000; People v. Hernandez, G.R. No. 130809.

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	Art. 249
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