G.R. No. 101188 -

Ruling

WHEREFORE , the court finds the accused APOLINAR RAGANAS and RUEL DALEON guilty beyond reasonable doubt, as principals, as charged, of Robbery with Homicide ( Article 294 (1) ), Revised Penal Code, and hereby imposes upon each of them the penalty of RECLUSION PERPETUA and to indemnify the heirs of MAMERTO LUCION THIRTY THOUSAND PESOS ( P30,000.00 ) and to pay proportionate costs. The accused shall be credited with the full period of preventive period of preventive imprisonment. SO ORDERED . [2] While confined in the Provincial Jail of Misamis Oriental, Cagayan De Oro City, accused Ruel Daleon escaped from prison on May 28, 1992, after stabbing his co-accused, Apolinar Raganas. Because of this incident the Court in a Resolution dated July 29, 1992, dismissed the appeal with respect to appellant Daleon. [3] Entry of Judgment concerning him was made on August 28, 1992. [4] Hence, the present appeal involves appellant Raganas only . Appellant assigns for our consideration the lone error that: THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN DISCREDITING THE DEFENSE OF DENIAL OF ACCUSED-APPELLANT APOLINARIO (sic) RAGANAS AND IN FINDING HIM GUILTY BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT OF THE CRIME OF ROBBERY WITH HOMICIDE . Appellant argues that though he was positively identified by prosecution witnesses as the one who fled from the Yasay compound with Daleon, this alone is not enough to prove that he inflicted the injuries on Mamerto Lucion. He contends that not one of the prosecution witnesses testified that they saw him stab the victim. He claims that these testimonies could not even support the finding of conspiracy as he did not have any idea what Daleon intended to do that fateful night of June 18, 1990. [5] Prescinding from appellants lone assignment of error, we find that the crucial issues in this appeal involve credibility of the witnesses and sufficiency of the prosecutions evidence to establish beyond reasonable doubt, the guilt of appellant for the crime of robbery with homicide. For the State, the Solicitor General, while agreeing with the basic finding of guilt by the trial court, nonetheless recommended the modification of the penalty to conform with Section 9 in relation to Section 21 of Republic Act 7659. [6] He suggests that the penalty imposed should be modified from Reclusion Perpetua to twelve (12) years and one (1) day of Reclusion Temporal , as minimum, to twenty (20) years and one (1) day of Reclusion Perpetua , as maximum. The records of the trial court reveal the following factual antecedents: On June 18, 1990, at about 9:00 oclock in the evening at Barangay Igpit, Opol, Misamis Oriental, two men with identical clothes alighted from a passenger jeepney. [7] They were later on identified as the herein accused-appellants. On their way to the Yasay Compound, they passed by Isidra Daayata and Delia Caracho who were both standing on the left side of the national highway the same side the former were. The place was illuminated by a lamp post light near the guardho