Murder, as defined under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code is the unlawful killing of a person which is not parricide or infanticide, provided that treachery or evident premeditation, inter alia, attended the killing.

"Xxx.

Crime committed and proper penalty

While the Decision of the trial court recognized the guilt of the petitioners for the offense as charged to have been proven beyond reasonable doubt, the trial court went on to hold them guilty to a lesser offense of homicide citing the Court's ruling in People v. Tapalla.[31] In said case, this Court declared that if the prosecution accepts from any of the defendants charged with conspiracy in the commission of a crime, a plea of guilty to a lesser offense included in the one alleged in the information, such acceptance will benefit his co-defendants. In arriving at this conclusion, the trial court was of the impression that Maramara's plea of guilty to a lesser offense of homicide in Criminal Case No. DU-3721 should benefit the petitioners in this case.

The case of Tapalla,[32] invoked by the trial court as authority in arriving at such conclusion, is not applicable in the present case. The information in Criminal Case No. DU-3721 indicting Maramara alone of murder is distinct and separate from the information charging petitioners for the same offense in the instant case. Moreover, Maramara was neither charged as co-accused of petitioners nor of conspiring to commit a crime in either case. As correctly observed by the trial court, Maramara was only a principal witness in this case[33] though admittedly a conspirator in the commission of the crime. These circumstances provide a distinction from the Tapalla case where the accused Tingzon, who pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of homicide, was a co- accused in the same information charging him along with others of conspiring to commit murder. We therefore cannot agree with the trial court's conclusion drawn from the principle laid down in the Tapalla case and neither can we give imprimatur on the appellate court's affirmation thereof. The basis thus used is, in our opinion, wrong.

As the evidence stands, the crime committed by petitioners is murder in view of the attending circumstances of treachery and evident premeditation. Murder, as defined under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code is the unlawful lolling of a person which is not parricide or infanticide, provided that treachery or evident premeditation, inter alia, attended the killing. The presence of any one of the enumerated circumstances under Article 248 is enough to qualify a killing as murder punishable by reclusion perpetua to death. When more than one qualifying circumstance is proven, as in this case, the rule is that the other must be considered as generic aggravating.[34] In the present case, the qualifying circumstance of evident premeditation will be considered as a generic aggravating circumstance warranting the imposition of the penalty of death in the absence of any mitigating circumstance.[35] Since the imposition of the death penalty has been prohibited by Republic Act No. 9346,[36] a law favorable to petitioners which took effect on June 24, 2006, the penalty that should be imposed on petitioners is reduced to reclusion perpetua without eligibility for parole. Sections 2 and 3 of the Act provide:

Section 2. In lieu of the death penalty, the following shall be imposed:

a) The penalty of reclusion perpetua, when the law violated makes use of the nomenclature of the penalties, of the Revised Penal Code;

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Section 3. Person convicted of offenses punishable with reclusion perpetua or whose sentences will be reduced to reclusion perpetua by reason of this Act, shall not be eligible for parole under Act No. 4103 otherwise known as the Indeterminate Sentence Law, as amended.

Civil Liability

When death occurs due to a crime, the following damages may be recovered: (1) civil indemnity ex delicto for the death of the victim; (2) actual or compensatory damages; (3) moral damages; (4) exemplary damages; (5) attorney's fees and expenses of litigation; and, (6) interest, in proper cases.[37]

The Decision of the trial couit as affirmed by the appellate court only awarded P50,000.00 to the legal heirs of the victim without stating the nature of this grant. As held in People v. Zamorqga, [38] civil indemnity and moral damages, being based on differen jural foundations are separate and distinct from each other. Thus, it becomes imperative for this Court to rectify the error and award additional damages following precedents.

In line with prevailing jurisprudence, we award the fixed amount of P75,000.00 for the death of the victim[39] as civil indemnity ex delicto without any need of proof other than the commission of the crime. An award of moral damages is also in order even though the prosecution did not present any proof of the heirs' emotional suffering apart from the fact of death of the victim, since the emotional wounds from the vicious killing of the victim cannot be denied.[40] The award of P75,000.00 is proper pursuant to established jurisprudence.

Although the prosecution presented evidence that the heirs had incurred actual expenses, no receipts were presented in the trial court. An award of temperate damages in lieu of actual damages in the amount of P25,000.00 to the heirs of the victim is warranted because it is reasonable to presume that when death occurs, the family of the victim suffered pecuniary loss for the wake and funeral of the victim although the exact amount was not proved.[41]

In addition, exemplary damages in the amount of P30,000.00 should be awarded considering the attendance of the aggravating circumstance of treachery that qualified the killing to murder and evident premeditation which served as generic aggravating circumstance. Exemplary damages are awarded when treachery attended the commission of the crime.[42]

WHEREFORE, the appealed judgment is AFFIRMED with MODIFICATIONS. Petitioners Gregorio Manatad, Virgilio Bug-atan and Bernie Labandero are found GUILTY beyond reasonable doubt of murder, not homicide, qualified by treachery, and sentenced to suffer reclusion perpetua without eligibility for parole.

Petitioners are ORDERED to pay the heirs of victim Pastor Papauran the amounts of P75,000.00 as civil indemnity, P75,000.00 as moral damages, P25,000.00 as temperate damages and P30,000.00 as exemplary damages. Costs against petitioners.

SO ORDERED.

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VIRGILIO BUG-ATAN, BERME LABANDERO GREGORIO MANATAD PETITIONERS, VS. THE PEOPLE OF PHILIPPINES, Respondent. G.R. No. 175195, September 15, 2010.

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