, VS. ALEX OLIANO Y PUGONG AND GABRIEL CALIAG, ACCUSED, ALEX

Ruling

WHEREFORE, finding the accused ALEX OLIANO guilty of Murder defined and penalized under Art. 248 of the Revised Penal Code, he is hereby sentenced to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua; to pay the heirs of the victim Benjamin Matias the sum of P50,000.00; P10,000.00 as actual damages; and P30,000.00 as moral damages. 7 The appellant filed a motion for reconsideration, 8 which however was denied by the trial court in its order dated September 15, 1994. 9 Hence, this appeal. 10 The Facts Version of the Prosecution The prosecution presented six witnesses, namely: (1) Nancy Basatan, 11 a neighbor of the deceased; (2) Rosita Matias, 12 the widow; (3) PFCs Samuel Caramat 13 and (4) Bernabe Flores, 14 the investigating and arresting officers; (5) Myrna Matias, 15 the daughter of the victim; and (6) Dra. Violeta Rumbaua, 16 who conducted the autopsy. The antecedent facts, culled from the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses, were briefly summarized by the solicitor general as follows: On March 16, 1987, Benjamin Matias and his wife, Rosita, attended the wedding of Helen Nebres and Hilario Bugan in the house of Hindok Nebres at Sitio Taktak, Barangay Atbo, Sta. Fe, Nueva Vizcaya. Among those who attended the wedding were accused Gabriel Caliag and Alex Oliano. While serving supper, Rosita heard Alex say If it is Benjamin Matias who will give meat, I will not accept it. Benjamin Matias was then busy slicing meat for the guests. At about 11:45 that evening, Rosita and Benjamin went home. The distance of their house from that of the Nebres was about one-half kilometer. Benjamin walked ahead of Rosita. (x x x) It happened that there were two boulders located on the left side of the road leading to the couples house. When they were only about a meter away from the boulders, somebody fired a gun at Benjamin hitting him at the back, the bullet exiting through his chest. Rosita then saw appellant Alex Oliano behind the boulders, holding a rifle. At that instance, Rosita uttered the following to appellant: Why did you kill my husband when in fact, he did not commit any fault against you? Subsequently, appellant aimed his gun at her but it jammed. Rosita also saw the other accused Gabriel Caliag looking at her from behind a banana plant. Alex and Gabriel then ran away towards the mountain. Rosita went to her husband who was then lying face down on the ground and embraced him. The moon was bright that night, thus enabling Rosita to easily recognize appellant and his co-accused. Rosita is also familiar with appellant since he was 17 years old because they were neighbors. (x x x) Rosita called for help and her neighbor, Nancy Basatan came. The latter asked Rosita what happened. Rosita answered, Alex Oliano shot my husband when we did not have any fault against him. Later, her children, namely Ricardo, Edgar, and Dencio arrived together with two Barangay Captains Day-an Celo and Peter. Her children wanted to retaliate against Alex but she calmed the