FIRST DIVISION
[G.R. No. 192252. February 25, 2015.]
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. RYAN CORCUERA Y CABARON, accused-appellant.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, First Division, issued a Resolution dated February 25, 2015which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 192252 — PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee v. RYAN CORCUERA Y CABARON, accused-appellant.
This is in reference to the Resolution of this Court dated 13 August 2013 which affirmed the conviction of accused-appellant RYAN CORCUERA y CABARON, for the crime of robbery with homicide of the Court of Appeals, 1 which affirmed in toto the Decision 2 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 268, Pasig City, docketed as Criminal Case No. 132947-H entitled "People of the Philippines v. Ryan Corcuera and Rodeo Bartolome."
The dispositive portion of the Resolution dated 13 August 2014 reads:
WHEREFORE, we AFFIRM the Decision of the Court of Appeals, which upheld the Decision of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 268, Pasig City, docketed as Criminal Case No. 132947-H, finding accused RYAN CORCUERA y CABARON guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of robbery with homicide. 3
As reference, the dispositive portion of the Decision of the RTC as affirmed in toto by the Court of Appeals reads:
WHEREFORE, foregoing premises considered, accused Ryan Corcuera y Cabaron and Rodeo Bartolome y Quijano are hereby found guilty of Robbery with Homicide and sentenced to suffer the penalty of Reclusion Perpetua.
They are likewise ordered to pay in solidum the heirs of Charlene Santos y Bruno the following sums:
1. Php110,500.00 as and by way of reparation pay; and
2. Php50,000.00 as and by way of civil indemnity for the death of Charlene Santos; and
3. Php500,000.00 as and by way of moral damages.
SO ORDERED. 4IcADSE
However, after rendering the Resolution dated 13 August 2014, the New Bilibid Prison of the Bureau of Corrections informed this Court, through a letter dated 21 September 2014, that accused-appellant Corcuera had already died on 1 January 2013 as shown by the attached copy of the death certificate. 5
Given the state of Corcuera's demise on 01 January 2013, pending his appeal before this Court, We hereinafter resolve that Corcuera's criminal and civil liabilities are effectively extinguished based on Article 89 (1) of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) which provides for the effect of death of the accused on his criminal and civil liabilities:
Art. 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;
Following the mandate of Article 89 (1) of the RPC, this Court in People v. Bayotas6 laid down the following guidelines in case the accused died pending appeal:
1. Death of the accused pending appeal of his conviction extinguishes his criminal liability as well as the civil liability based solely thereon. As opined by Justice Regalado, in this regard, "the death of the accused prior to final judgment terminates his criminal liability and only the civil liability directly arising from and based solely on the offense committed, i.e., civil liability ex delicto in senso strictiore."
2. Corollarily, the claim for civil liability survives notwithstanding the death of [the] accused, if the same may also be predicated on a source of obligation other than delict. Article 1157 of the Civil Code enumerates these other sources of obligation from which the civil liability may arise as a result of the same act or omission:
a) Law
b) Quasi-contracts
c) . . . .
d) Quasi-delicts
3. Where the civil liability survives, as explained in Number 2, above an action for recovery therefor may be pursued but only by way of filing a separate civil action and subject to Section 1, Rule 111 of the 1985 Rules on Criminal Procedure as amended. This separate civil action may be enforced either against the executor/administrator or the estate of the accused, depending on the source of obligation upon which the same is based as explained above.
4. Finally, the private offended party need not fear a forfeiture of his right to file this separate civil action by prescription, in cases where during the prosecution of the criminal action and prior to its extinction, the private-offended party instituted together therewith the civil action. In such case, the statute of limitations on the civil liability is deemed interrupted during the pendency of the criminal case, conformably with [the] provisions of Article 1155 of the Civil Code, that should thereby avoid any apprehension on a possible privation of right by prescription. 7
From the foregoing therefore, the death of Corcuera pending appeal of his conviction extinguished his criminal and civil liabilities ex delicto. The rationale admits a scenario when there is no longer a defendant to stand as the accused to the crime committed. Withal, the civil liability ex delicto is ipso facto extinguished because it is grounded upon the criminal liability which is also, by operation of law, extinguished. 8
WHEREFORE, in view of the death of accused-appellant RYAN CORCUERA y CABARON, the Resolution dated 13 August 2014 is SET ASIDE and Criminal Case No. 132947-H before the Regional Trial Court of Pasig City, finding the accused guilty of the crime of robbery with homicide under Article 294 of the Revised Penal Code is DISMISSED. Cost de oficio. cTSHaE
SO ORDERED."
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) EDGAR O. ARICHETADivision Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1. Penned by Associate Justice Bienvenido L. Reyes (now a member of this Court) with Associate Justices Isaias P. Dicdican and Marlene Gonzales-Sison, concurring. Rollo, pp. 2-15.
2. Penned by Judge Amelia C. Manalastas. CA rollo, pp. 28-51.
3. Rollo, p. 52.
4. Id. at 51.
5. Resolution, 14 November 2012. Id. at 54-55.
6. G.R. No. 102007, 2 September 1994, 236 SCRA 239.
7. Id. at 255-256.
8. People v. Bayot, G.R. No. 200030, 18 April 2012, 670 SCRA 285-292.