FIRST DIVISION
[G.R. No. 200596. October 21, 2015.]
RUIZ GANOHON Y SARIPA, petitioner, vs. PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, respondent.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, First Division, issued a Resolution dated October 21, 2015 which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 200596 — RUIZ GANOHON Y SARIPA, Petitioner, v. PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Respondent.
On May 20, 2011, the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of Regional Trial Court of Misamis Oriental, Branch 25 (RTC Misamis Oriental) finding and declaring the petitioner guilty beyond reasonable doubt of violating Section 11, paragraph 2(3), Article II of Republic Act No. 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002). 1
On April 18, 2012, the petitioner appealed to the Court for the review and reversal of the conviction. 2
On April 30, 2015, Records Officer I Hanne Lee G. Genson of the CA's Cagayan de Oro City Station forwarded to the Court the letter dated April 22, 2015 of Gerardo F. Padilla, Officer-in-Charge of the Davao Prison and Penal Farm, informing about the death of the petitioner at said detention facility on November 8, 2014, submitting therewith the death certificate of the petitioner. 3
The Court declares that the death of the petitioner prior to the finality of his conviction totally extinguished his criminal liability. Such total extinguishment is based on Article 89 of the Revised Penal Code, which pertinently provides:
Article 89. How criminal liability is totally extinguished. — Criminal liability is totally extinguished:
1. By the death of the convict, as to the personal penalties; and as to pecuniary penalties, liability therefor is extinguished only when the death of the offender occurs before final judgment.
xxx xxx xxx
The total extinguishment of his criminal liability carried with it the extinguishment of his civil liability directly arising from the offense committed. 4 We clarify, however, that the heirs of the victim may file a separate civil action against his estate, as the law and procedural rules may warrant, for such claim may be based on sources of obligation other than the delict for which he was charged, arraigned, tried and convicted by the RTC. 5
UPON THE FOREGOING CONSIDERATIONS, the Court DISMISSES the criminal case filed against petitioner RUIZ GANOHON y SARIPA; DECLARES his civil liability arising from the offense committed extinguished; and CONSIDERS this appeal CLOSED and TERMINATED, without costs of suit.
SO ORDERED." PEREZ, J., on official business; VELASCO, JR., J., acting member per S.O. No. 2253 dated October 14, 2015. HESIcT
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) EDGAR O. ARICHETADivision Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1. Rollo, p. 89; penned by Associate Justice Rodrigo F. Lim, Jr. (retired), and concurred in by Associate Justice Pamela Ann A. Maxino and Associate Justice Zenaida T. Galapate-Laguilles.
2. Id. at 19.
3. Id. at 139-142.
4. People v. Bunay, G.R. No. 171268, September 14, 2010, 630 SCRA 445, 448; People v. Bayotas, G.R. No. 102007, September 2, 1994, 236 SCRA 239.
5. People v. Bayotas, supra; People v. Abungan, G.R. No. 136843, September 28, 2000, 341 SCRA 258.