SECOND DIVISION
[G.R. No. 220885. June 22, 2016.]
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. ABDULLAH BONGCARAWAN AND RONALD RECABO, accused-appellants.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, Second Division, issued a Resolution dated 22 June 2016 which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 220885 (People of the Philippines v. Abdullah Bongcarawan and Ronald Recabo).
The records of this case were elevated to this Court on October 28, 2015, pursuant to the Resolution 1 of the Court of Appeals (CA), dated September 24, 2015, which gave due course to the notice of appeal filed by the accused-appellants, Abdullah Bongcarawan and Ronald Recabo.
The Court then issued its Resolution, 2 dated January 11, 2016, which directed both parties to submit their supplemental briefs, if they so desired. On March 31, 2016, the accused-appellants, through the Public Attorney's office, filed a manifestation, in lieu of supplemental brief, 3 averring that they would adopt their Appellants' Brief filed before the CA as their supplemental brief. On March 22, 2016, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) filed a manifestation 4 stating that it would no longer submit a supplemental brief as its Appellee's Brief had sufficiently ventilated the issues raised.
After a perusal of the records of the case, the Court resolves to dismiss the appeal for failure of the accused-appellants to sufficiently show reversible error in the challenged decision to warrant the exercise of the Court's appellate jurisdiction.
The award of damages, however, must be modified to conform to the prevailing jurisprudence. 5 The award of civil indemnity and moral damages in the amount of P75,000.00, respectively, is proper, pursuant to the prevailing jurisprudence. 6 With respect to the award of exemplary damages, however, it should be increased from P50,000.00 to P75,000.00. Finally, interest at the legal rate of 6% per annum should also be imposed on all the damages awarded from the date of finality of this judgment until fully paid. 7
WHEREFORE, the Court hereby AFFIRMS the July 16, 2015 Decision of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. CR-HC No. 01106-MIN with the MODIFICATIONS, in that the exemplary damages is INCREASED from P50,000.00 to P75,000.00 for each count; and the monetary awards shall earn 6% interest per annum from finality of this Resolution until fully paid. IDSEAH
Cost against accused-appellants Abdullah Bongcarawan and Ronald Recabo.
SO ORDERED. (Del Castillo, J., on official leave)"
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) MA. LOURDES C. PERFECTODivision Clerk of Court
By:
TERESITA AQUINO TUAZONDeputy Division Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1. CA rollo, p. 113.
2. Rollo, pp. 21-22.
3. Id. at 26-27.
4. Id. at 23-24.
5. People v. Jugueta, G.R. No. 202124, April 5, 2016.
6. Id.
7. People v. Cruz, G.R. No. 201728, July 17, 2013, 701 SCRA 548, 559.