FIRST DIVISION
[G.R. No. 200880. October 2, 2013.]
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. RUFINO INAMARGA Y RAPIS, accused-appellant.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, First Division, issued a Resolution dated October 2, 2013, which reads as follows:
"G.R. No. 200880 (People of the Philippines vs. Rufino Inamarga y Rapis). — For resolution is an appeal from the Decision 1 dated June 3, 2011 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. CR-HC No. 02953 which affirmed the Decision 2 dated March 30, 2007 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Quezon City, Branch 88, in Criminal Case No. Q-01-102219 convicting accused-appellant Rufino Inamarga y Rapis (Inamarga) of the crime of rape, sentencing him to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua and ordering him to pay private complainant AAA 3 P50,000.00 as moral damages.
The criminal information that spawned the herein proceedings and to which Inamarga pleaded "Not Guilty", read as follows:
That on or about the 10th day of July, 2001, in Quezon City, Philippines, the said accused, by means of force and intimidation, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously have carnal knowledge with [AAA], a minor, 4 years old, inside the residence of the said accused, located at Area [XXX], Sitio [XXX], Bgy. [XXX], this City, against her will, which act debase, demeans and degrades the intrinsic worth or dignity of the said [AAA] as a human being."
CONTRARY TO LAW. 4 AcTHCE
Pending the Court's review of Inamarga's conviction, Chief Superintendent Guillermo B. Ayala of the New Bilibid Prision (NBP) manifested in a letter 5 dated February 4, 2013 that Inamarga died at the NBP Hospital on December 20, 2012. Attached to the manifestation is a certified true copy of his death certificate 6 specifying Cardio Respiratory Arrest secondary to Koch's pneumonia as the cause of his demise.
The foregoing development effectively renders pointless and unnecessary any further review of the appealed conviction. Article 89 (1) of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) 7 clearly states that when the death of the accused occurs before final judgment, his criminal liability is extinguished as well as his civil liability solely arising from or based on the crime imputed to him. "The rationale, therefore, is that the criminal action is extinguished inasmuch as there is no longer a defendant to stand as the accused, the civil action instituted therein for recovery of civil liability ex delicto is ipso facto extinguished, grounded as it is on the criminal case." 8
In People v. Bayotas, 9 the Court accentuated the implications of Article 89 and laid down the following guidelines, viz.:
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) Contracts
c) Quasi-contracts
xxx xxx xxx
e) 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. cCaDSA
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. 10 (Citations omitted)
Clearly, the death of Inamarga pending appeal of his conviction extinguished his criminal liability for rape, as well as his civil liability for moral damages arising from the said crime. Whether or not he was guilty of the crime charged had become irrelevant because even assuming that he did incur criminal liability and civil liability ex delicto, these were totally extinguished by his death. 11 The dismissal of Criminal Case No. Q-01-102219 is thus imperative while the appealed Decision dated June 3, 2011 of the CA in CA-G.R. CR-HC No. 02953 have become ineffectual. 12
WHEREFORE, in view of the death of accused-appellant Rufino Inamarga y Rapis, the Decision dated June 3, 2011 of the Court of Appeals in CA-G.R. CR-H.C. No. 02953 is SET ASIDE and Criminal Case No. Q-01-102219 before the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City, Branch 88, is DISMISSED. Costs de oficio.
SO ORDERED." BERSAMIN, J., on leave; PERLAS-BERNABE, J., acting member per S.O. No. 1537 (Revised) dated September 6, 2013. VILLARAMA, JR., J., on leave; LEONEN, J., acting member per S.O. No. 1545 (Revised) dated September 16, 2013.
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) EDGAR O. ARICHETADivision Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1. Penned by Associate Justice Mario L. Guariña III, with Associate Justices Apolinario D. Bruselas, Jr. and Manuel M. Barrios, concurring; rollo, pp. 2-8.
2. Issued by Presiding Judge Rosanna Fe Romero-Maglaya; CA rollo, pp. 21-27.
3. The real name of the victim, her personal circumstances and other information which tend to establish or compromise her identity, as well as those of their immediate family or household members, shall not be disclosed to protect her privacy and fictitious initials shall, instead, be used, in accordance with People v. Cabalquinto (533 Phil. 703 [2006]), and A.M. No. 04-11-09-SC dated September 19, 2006.
4. CA rollo, p. 21.
5. Rollo, p. 29.
6. Id. at 30.
7. 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.
2. By service of the sentence;
3. By amnesty, which completely extinguishes the penalty and all its effects;
4. By absolute pardon;
5. By prescription of the crime;
6. By prescription of the penalty;
7. By the marriage of the offended woman, as provided in Article 344 of this Code. (Emphasis ours)
8. People v. Bayot, G.R. No. 200030, April 18, 2012, 670 SCRA 285, 291, citing People v. Romero, 365 Phil. 531, 543 (1999).
9. G.R. No. 102007, September 2, 1994, 236 SCRA 239.
10. Id. at 255-256.
11. People v. Olaco, G.R. No. 197042, October 17, 2011, 659 SCRA 171, 176.
12. Id.