PEOPLE VS PELIS

G.R. No. 189328    February 21,2011
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES vs. ARNOLD PELIS

Facts:
          On February 19, 2004, the victim, Rolando Juan, was sitting with some companions inside a Videoke Bar, when the appellant and Entura came and, acting together and using knives, stabbed the victim. The appellant stabbed the victim once in the abdomen, while Entura stabbed the victim’s upper left chest. The appellant and Entura then fled from the crime scene. The victim’s companions rushed him to a nearby hospital where he died the next day.
          The RTC found the appellant guilty beyond reasonable doubt of murder. The RTC appreciated the qualifying circumstance of treachery because the appellant stabbed the victim without any previous warning while the victim was sitting and unarmed. The CA fully affirmed the RTC decision.

Issue:
          Whether or not treachery is present in the case

Ruling:

          The Supreme Court held that they find no reason to disturb the RTC’s findings, as affirmed by the CA. The eyewitness account of Mario Makahilig is more plausible than the appellant’s alibi. Positive identification, where categorical, consistent and not attended by any showing of ill motive on the part of the eyewitnesses, prevails over alibi and denial, particularly where the appellant had not shown the physical impossibility of his access to the victim at the time and place of the crime. The RTC correctly appreciated conspiracy since the simultaneous acts of the accused during the stabbing disclosed a unity of objective. Treachery qualified the killing to murder. Although frontal, the attack was unexpected, and the unarmed victim was in no position to repel the attack. Since neither aggravating nor mitigating circumstances attended the commission of the felony, the trial court properly imposed the penalty of reclusion perpetua.

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