SECOND DIVISION
[G.R. No. 222819. July 4, 2016.]
ROBERTO DELA CRUZ Y TOLIS, petitioner, vs. PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, respondent.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, Second Division, issued a Resolution dated 04 July 2016 which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 222819 — Roberto dela Cruz y Tolis, petitioner vs. People of the Philippines, respondent.
After verifying a report from a confidential informant (CI) that Roberto dela Cruz y Tolis (petitioner) was selling high powered firearms, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) conducted an entrapment operation at the La Loma Cemetery together with the CI. Upon their arrival, petitioner approached them and a brief transaction transpired. Petitioner then took out from a plastic bag a 9 mm Ingram pistol, four caliber .45 pistols and three caliber .38 pistols. He asked for the payment in the agreed price of P95,000.00 and NBI Agent Jerry Abiera (Abiera) paid the amount with marked money. After the sale was consummated, the NBI agents introduced themselves and asked petitioner to produce the license for the firearms. When petitioner could not comply, he was arrested and brought to the office of the NBI. NBI Agent Abiera prepared an inventory of the confiscated firearms. Upon inquiry, the Philippine National Police (PNP) issued a certification that petitioner was not an authorized or registered holder of any firearm. NBI Agent Abiera brought petitioner and the confiscated firearms to the inquest prosecutor, who told him to keep said firearms in the NBI Office. He thus turned-over the same to the NBI's Firearms Investigation Division.
An Information was filed for illegal possession of firearms under paragraph 2, Section 1 of Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1866, as amended by Republic Act (RA) No. 8294 against petitioner.
The Ruling of the Regional Trial Court (RTC)
In its Decision 1 dated October 31, 2014, the RTC found petitioner guilty beyond reasonable doubt of illegal possession of firearms. It gave credence to the testimony of NBI Agent Abiera that petitioner was arrested during an entrapment operation and ruled that the prosecution proved the existence of the elements of the offense. Thus, the RTC sentenced petitioner to the prison term of 6 years and 1 day, of prision mayor, as minimum, to 6 years and 9 months of prision mayor, as maximum. The RTC also ordered petitioner to pay a fine of P30,000.00.
The Ruling of the Court of Appeals (CA)
In its Decision 2 of January 27, 2016, the CA affirmed the ruling of RTC but modified the penalty to the indeterminate prison term of 6 years of prision correccional, as minimum, to 7 years and 4 months of prision mayor, as maximum.
Hence, this Petition for Review on Certiorari.
We deny the Petition.
The RTC and the CA were not mistaken in ruling that the prosecution established the offense of illegal possession of firearm against petitioner, which has the following elements: (1) the existence of the subject firearm; and (2) the fact that the accused who owned or possessed it does not have the corresponding license or permit to possess or carry the same. NBI Agent Abiera testified that the firearms that were presented in evidence were confiscated from petitioner during the entrapment operation conducted against him. The PNP also certified that petitioner is not a licensed or registered firearm holder.
Petitioner's attack on the credibility of NBI Agent Abiera was correctly brushed aside by the CA. The inconsistency in identifying petitioner as Tolis instead of Roberto is too trivial to warrant his exoneration. Regardless of this minor inconsistency, NBI Agent Abiera positively identified petitioner during trial as the person who sold the unlicensed firearms to him. NBI Agent Abiera's statement that the build-up of petitioner's case was conveyed to his superior verbally does not indicate that the entire operation was undocumented. An Intelligence Report was executed for purposes of the entrapment operation. The approval of the same was also documented. While the buy-bust money was not dusted with fluorescent powder, the acceptable reason offered by NBI Agent Abiera was that there was no definite date for the entrapment operation and it was only upon being informed by the CI that petitioner had firearms for sale that the entrapment operation became a certainty. This was the time that the preparation of the buy-bust money became necessary and the approval for its dusting would only delay or abort the entrapment operation. AIDSTE
Petitioner's argument that there is no certainty that the firearms seized by the NBI Agents during the entrapment operation were the same as those presented in court fails to persuade. NBI Agent Abiera adopted measures to ensure that there would be an unbroken link in the chain of custody of the evidence. He brought to and inventoried in the NBI Office the seized firearms. Thereafter, he turned over said firearms to the prosecutor's office but was told to keep them in the NBI Office. He complied by taking them to the Firearms Investigation Division of the NBI. He retrieved the seized firearms to present them in evidence during trial. NBI Agent Abiera also identified the seized firearms as the same firearms presented in court.
The CA did not err in modifying the penalty imposed by the RTC on petitioner. Under RA No. 8294, the prescribed penalty is prision mayor, minimum. There being no aggravating or mitigating circumstance, the maximum penalty should be within the range of prision mayor, minimum, in its medium period (6 years, 8 months and 1 day to 7 years and 4 months). While the offense of illegal possession of firearm is punished by special law, the penalty provided nevertheless has been taken from the range of penalties found in the Revised Penal Code, thereby effectively adopting the rules set forth therein inclusive of the Indeterminate Sentence Law (ISL). Thus, applying the ISL, the minimum term of the penalty should be anywhere within the range of prision correccional in its maximum period, which is within the range of 4 years, 2 months and 1 day to 6 years. The CA clearly imposed the proper indeterminate sentence of 6 years of prision correccional in its maximum degree, as minimum, to 7 years and 4 months of prision mayor in its minimum degree, as maximum.
ACCORDINGLY, there being no reversible error committed by the Court of Appeals, the Petition for Review on Certiorari is hereby DENIED. (Mendoza, J., on official leave from July 4-22, 2016 per Resolution dated June 21, 2016 in A.M. No. 16-06-05-SC).
SO ORDERED."
Very truly yours,
MA. LOURDES C. PERFECTODivision Clerk of Court
By:
(SGD.) TERESITA AQUINO TUAZONDeputy Division Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1. Rollo, pp. 63-73; docketed as Crim. Case No. C-74661; penned by Presiding Judge Lorenza R. Bordios, Regional Trial Court of Caloocan City, Branch 126.
2. Id. at 34-46; docketed as CA-G.R. CR No. 37140; penned by Associate Justice Ramon R. Garcia and concurred in by Associate Justices Leoncia R. Dimagiba and Jhosep Y. Lopez.