G.R. No. 179709 - PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, VS. FILOMENO MAYINGQUE, GREGORIO MAYINGQUE, AND TORIBIO MAYINGQUE Y SANICO.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

accordingly punished with reclusion perpetua pursuant to Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code . [36] There is a need to correct the award of damages. The CA did not state whether the amount of P50,000.00 was for death indemnity or moral damages. Nonetheless, the CA should have awarded both damages, considering that they were of different kinds. [37] For death indemnity, the amount of P50,000.00 is fixed pursuant to the current judicial policy on the matter, [38] without the need of any evidence or proof of damages. [39] Likewise, the mental anguish of the surviving family should be assuaged by the award of appropriate and reasonable moral damages. [40] Although the surviving family's mental anguish is not ever quantifiable with mathematical precision, the Court must nonetheless determine the amount to which the heirs of the deceased are entitled. In this case, the Court holds that the amount of P50,000.00 is reasonable, which, pursuant to prevailing jurisprudence, [41] is awarded even in the absence of any allegation and proof of the heirs' emotional suffering, simply because human nature and experience have shown that: xxx a violent death invariably and necessarily brings about emotional pain and anguish on the part of the victim's family. It is inherently human to suffer sorrow, torment, pain and anger when a loved one becomes the victim of a violent or brutal killing. Such violent death or brutal killing not only steals from the family of the deceased his precious life, deprives them forever of his love, affection and support, but often leaves them with the gnawing feeling that an injustice has been done to them. [42] The Civil Code provides that exemplary damages may be imposed in criminal cases as part of the civil liability "when the crime was committed with one or more aggravating circumstances." [43] The Civil Code allows such damages to be awarded "by way of example or correction for the public good, in addition to the moral, temperate, liquidated or compensatory damages." [44] In this regard, the CA and the RTC committed the plain error of failing to recognize the right of the heirs of the victim to exemplary damages by virtue of the attendance of treachery. The plain error, even if not assigned in this appeal, demands immediate rectification as a matter of law due to the killing being attended by treachery. That treachery, being an attendant circumstance, was inseparable from murder did not matter. As well explained in People v. Catubig : [45] The term "aggravating circumstances" used by the Civil Code , the law not having specified otherwise, is to be understood in its broad or generic sense. The commission of an offense has a two-pronged effect, one on the public as it breaches the social order and the other upon the private victim as it causes personal sufferings, each of which is addressed by, respectively, the prescription of heavier punishment for the accused and by an award of additional damages to the victim. The increase of t