G.R. No. 116281 - PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, VS. SPO1 ROMULO GUTIERREZ, JR., ACCUSED-. D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, premises considered, this Court finds accused SPO1 ROMULO GUTIERREZ, JR. guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of MURDER defined and punished under Article 248 paragraph 5 of the Revised Penal Code as charged with aggravating circumstances of abuse of superior strength, that advantage was taken by the accused of his public position, and that the crime was committed in contempt of or with insult to public authority, one of which is offset by the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender, the imposable penalty should have been death, but said penalty was abolished under the 1987 constitution by reason thereof, this Court sentences him to suffer the penalty of RECLUSION PERPETUA, and he is hereby ordered to pay to the heirs of Antonio Mercene, Jr. the following: 1) P50,000.00 as indemnity for the death of Antonio Mercene, Jr.; 2) P224,000.00 as compensation for the victim's loss of earning as a duly elected Municipal Councilor of Pola, Oriental Mindoro during the May 11, 1992 Local Elections; 3) P90,000.00 as reimbursement of the expenses incurred for the wake, burial and funeral services for the deceased Antonio Mercene, Jr.; 4) P150,000.00 as support in the form of expenses for education of the two (2) minor children of the deceased; 5) P100,000.00 as moral damages for the mental anguish suffered by the heirs of said deceased; and 6) to pay the costs. SPO1 Romulo Gutierrez, Jr., having been convicted of the crime of murder, the property bond posted by bondsmen Constancio Gutierrez, Virgilio Diona, and Feneta Lavalos-Diona for his provisional liberty is hereby cancelled and released, and authority is hereby given to the Acting Branch Clerk of Court of this Court to detach from the records the certificates of titles, and return them to the bondsmen, duly receipted. SO ORDERED.