People V Villanueva

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES vs CYRUS VILLANUEVA y ISO RENA alias "Tutoy" and AL VIN SA
YSON y ESPONCILLA alias "Alvin Talangka”
G.R. No. 226475 | March 13, 2017
Facts: Amie Bafiaga (Bañaga) was selling tapsilog to a group of persons playing cara y cruz. The
accused-appellants and Valencia arrived and asked the group if they know Enrico Enriquez (Enrico), to
which they answered in the negative. Thereupon, the accused-appellants and Valencia went to the
tricycle terminal, which was about 10 to 15 meters away, where they saw Enrico. They then
simultaneously attacked Enrico. Villanueva punched Enrico on the face twice while Sayson hit the latter at
the back of the head with a stone wrapped in a t-shirt. Valencia then stabbed Enrico on the left side of his
armpit twice. Enrico tried to fight back to no avail. The assailants thereafter fled. However, Villanueva was
caught by men aboard a pursuing tricycle. Enrico was brought to the Muntinlupa Medical Center, but he
was declared dead on arrival.
RTC: GUILTY beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of Murder defined and penalized under Article 248
of the [RPC] and accordingly sentences them to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua.
CA: affirming the conviction of the accused-appellants for the crime of murder rendered by the RTC in its
Decision.
Issue: Whether the CA erred in affirming the RTC Decision dated September 16, 2014, which found the
accused-appellants guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of murder.
Held: Yes. The CA erred in affirming the decision of RTC finding the accused-appellants guilty of murder.
To warrant a conviction for the crime of murder, the following essential elements must be present:
(1) that a person was killed;
(2) that the accused killed him or her;
(3) that the killing was attended by any of the qualifying circumstances mentioned in Article 248 of
the RPC; and
(4) that the killing is not parricide or infanticide. One of the circumstances mentioned in Article 248,
which qualifies the killing of the victim to murder, is abuse of superior strength.
After a thorough perusal of the records of this case, the Court is convinced that the evidence presented
by the prosecution amply demonstrate that Enrico was killed and that it was the accused-appellants and
Valencia who killed him and simultaneously attacked Enrico while he was standing at the tricycle terminal.
Villanueva punched Enrico twice on the face while Sayson hit the latter with a rock. Thereafter, Valencia
stabbed Enrico in the chest, twice, which ultimately caused his death.
Nevertheless, the prosecution failed to establish the qualifying circumstance of abuse of superior
strength. Both the lower courts concluded that the accused-appellants and Valencia, having the intent to
kill Enrico, employed abuse of superior strength to ensure the execution and success of the crime.
The fact that the accused-appellants and Valencia, armed with a knife and a stone, ganged up on Enrico
does not automatically merit the conclusion that the latter's killing was attended by the qualifying
circumstance of abuse of superior strength.
Abuse of superior strength is present whenever there is a notorious inequality of forces between the
victim and the aggressor/s that is plainly and obviously advantageous to the aggressor/s and purposely
selected or taken advantage of to facilitate the commission of the crime. Evidence must show that the
assailants consciously sought the advantage, or that they had the deliberate intent to use this advantage.
To take advantage of superior strength means to purposely use force excessively out of proportion to the
means of defense available to the person attacked. The appreciation of this aggravating circumstance
depends on the age, size and strength of the parties.
In this case, the prosecution failed to present evidence as regards the relative disparity in age, size,
strength or force between the accused-appellants and Valencia, on one hand, and Enrico, on the other.
Indeed, the lower courts merely inferred the existence of qualifying circumstance of abuse of superior
strength on the facts that Enrico was attacked by three assailants, the accused-appellants and Valencia,
who were armed with a knife and a stone. However, mere superiority in numbers does not ipso
facto indicate an abuse of superior strength.29
Accordingly, the Court is compelled to disregard the finding of the existence of abuse of superior strength
by the lower courts. The accused-appellants' guilt is, thus, limited to the crime of homicide.
Issue: Whether or not the arrest of the accused-appellants is valid.
Held: Yes. The warrantless arrest of the accused-appellants is valid. The accused-appellants never raised
the supposed illegality of their arrest prior to their arraignment. In fact, nowhere in any part of the
proceedings before the RTC did the accused-appellants assail the validity of their arrest. The accused-
appellants only brought up the supposed irregularity in their arrest for the first time in their appeal to the
CA. It has been ruled time and again that an accused is estopped from assailing any irregularity with
regard to his arrest if he fails to raise this issue or to move for the quashal of the information against him
on this ground before his arraignment. Any objection involving the procedure by which the court
acquired jurisdiction over the person of the accused must be made before he enters his plea; otherwise,
the objection is deemed waived.
Decision: Accused-appellants Cyrus Villanueva y Isorena and Alvin Sayson y Esponcilla are hereby
found GUILTY beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of Homicide under Article 249 of the Revised Penal
Code.

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PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES vs CYRUS VILLANUEVA y ISO RENA alias "Tutoy" and AL VIN SA

YSON y ESPONCILLA alias "Alvin Talangka”

G.R. No. 226475 | March 13, 2017

(1) that a person was killed;

(2) that the accused killed him or her;

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