G.R. No. 139875 - GREGORIO PESTAÑO AND METRO CEBU AUTOBUS CORPORATION, VS. SPOUSES TEOTIMO SUMAYANG AND PAZ C. SUMAYANG.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

WHEREFORE, premises considered, the instant appeal is hereby DENIED. The assailed Decision of the lower court is hereby AFFIRMED with the aforesaid modification regarding the award of death penalty." The Resolution of August 6, 1999 denied reconsideration. [2] The Facts The events leading to this Petition were summarized by the Court of Appeals as follows: "It appears from the records that at around 2:00 o'clock [o]n the afternoon of August 9, 1986, Ananias Sumayang was riding a motorcycle along the national highway in Ilihan, Tabagon, Cebu. Riding with him was his friend Manuel Romagos. As they came upon a junction where the highway connected with the road leading to Tabagon, they were hit by a passenger bus driven by [Petitioner] Gregorio Pestaño and owned by [Petitioner] Metro Cebu Autobus Corporation (Metro Cebu, for brevity), which had tried to overtake them, sending the motorcycle and its passengers hurtling upon the pavement. Both Ananias Sumayang and Manuel Romagos were rushed to the hospital in Sogod, where Sumayang was pronounced dead on arrival. Romagos was transferred to the Cebu Doctors' Hospital, but he succumbed to his injuries the day after. "Apart from the institution of criminal charges against Gregorio Pestaño, [Respondents] Teotimo and Paz Sumayang, as heirs of Ananias Sumayang, filed this civil action for damages against Gregorio Pestaño, as driver of the passenger bus that rammed the deceased's motorcycle, Metro Cebu, as owner and operator of the said bus, and Perla Compania de Seguros, as insurer of Metro Cebu. The case was docketed as Civil Case No. CEB-6108. "On November 9, 1987, upon motion of [Petitioner] Pestaño, Judge Pedro C. Son ordered the consolidation of the said case with Criminal Case No. 10624, pending in Branch 16 of the same Court, involving the criminal prosecution of Gregorio Pestaño for [d]ouble [h]omicide thru [r]eckless [i]mprudence. Joint trial of the two cases thereafter ensued, where the following assertions were made: `[Respondents] rely mainly on the testimonies of Ignacio Neis, Pat. Aquilino Dinoy and Teotimo Sumayang, father of the deceased. Neis declared that he saw the incident while he was sitting on a bench beside the highway; that both vehicles c[a]me from the North; that as the motorcycle approached the junction to Tab[a]gon, the driver Ananias Sumayang signalled with his left arm to indicate that he was taking the Tab[a]gon Road; that the motorcycle did turn left but as it did so, it was bumped by an overspeeding bus; that the force of the impact threw Ananias Sumayang and his companion Manuel Romagos about 14 meters away. The motorcycle, Neis continued, was badly damaged as it was dragged by the bus. `On the other hand, Pat. Dinoy testified that he was in the nearby house of Ruben Tiu [when] he heard the sound or noise caused by the collision; that he immediately went to the scene where he found Ananias Sumayang and Manuel Romagos lying on the road bleeding and badly injured; that he requ