People V Calvo

[G.R. No. 91694.
March 14, 1997]

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. SABAS CALVO, JR., and RODOLFO LONGCOP, accused-appellants.
Facts
Charged with and prosecuted for robbery with homicide were herein appellant Sabas Calvo, Jr. and co-accused Rodolfo Longcop. On September 26,
1987 at about 9:00pm in the evening they were charged of killing Ignacia Mauleon, who with her spouse owns a bakery business (Philip's Bakery). Mauleon
was stabbed to death at her room and the appellants took away a bag containing P1,150,000.00.
One of the bakerys stay-in salesgirl, Beatriz Bido, saw the two men barged out rushing to the stairs from the room of her boss. The two men were
identified by Bido as Calvo and Gaspar. When Bido succeeded in entering Mrs. Mauleons room, she was speechless and surprised to see the latterss body
sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood. She also saw the room in disarray - clothes and other articles were scattered all over the place. Nearby the Philip's
Bakery is another store owned and operated by one Lucila Gorospe.. Gorospe was just in front of her store facing the Philip's Bakery when this incident
happened. She saw two men came from the stairs of Philip's Bakery running as fast as their legs could carry them. Bido identified one of the men as Sabas
Calvo, Jr., who was carrying the bag. Sabas' companion did not carry anything.
In the meantime, the Homicide Section of the Western Police District received a telephone call from Tessie Evangelista informing them that a female
unidentified body was found inside Philip's Bakery located at the corner of Morayta and Espaa Streets. Calvo managed to escape the police but he was
eventually caught at his hometown in Northern Samar. On November 5, 1985, accused Rodolfo Longcop was also arrested at Philip's Bakery, Manila. Upon
investigation, Rodolfo Longcop chose to remain silent and did not issue any written statement while Sabas Calvo, Jr., indicated his willingness to give his
statement. The police advised accused Sabas Calvo, Jr., of his constitutional rights and gave him Atty. Alfredo Feraren, Jr. of the Citizen Legal Assistance
Office of Quezon City, as counsel to assist him during the custodial investigation/interrogation. The accused was adviced on his Constitutional right by both the
police and his counsel Atty. Feraren, Jr., during the custodial investigation. Accused Sabas Calvo Jr. gave his statement duly counter signed by his appointed
counsel Atty. Feraren Jr. During the trial, while accused Rodolfo Longcop was in detention, he died of sickness. With the death of accused Longcop during the
pendency of the trial, only appellant Calvo was found guilty of the crime charged. He is sentenced to reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment and ordered to
indemnify deceased Ignacia Mauleon's heirs in the amount of P50,000.00. The bases for conviction were (1) appellant's extrajudicial confession dated
November 5, 1987, wherein he recounted how the plan to rob the bakery was hatched and his participation as look-out while his companions Longcop and
one Bobby Gaspar did the actual heist and killing of Ignacia Mauleon, and (2) the identification of appellant by prosecution witnesses Beatriz Bido and Lucila
Gorospe. Calvo appealed the resolution contending that there was an irregularity when he made his extrajudicial confession.
Issue: Whether or not the extrajudicial confession made by Calvo is admissible in court.
Held: Yes, it is admissible.
Under the rules laid down by the Constitution and existing law and jurisprudence, a confession to be admissible must satisfy all of four fundamental
requirements: 1) the confession must be voluntary; 2) the confession must be made with the assistance of competent and independent counsel; 3) the
confession must be express; and 4) the confession must be in writing. The "irregularities" which appellant claims to have attended his extrajudicial confession
principally relate to the second requirement. The "irregularity" concerns the competence of Atty. Alfredo Ferraren, the CLAO lawyer who assisted appellant in
the preparation of his extrajudicial confession. Appellant claims that Atty. Ferraren utterly failed to protect his rights during the custodial investigation as shown
by the following advice given by said lawyer which, to borrow appellant's counsel's words, "threatened the accused and further pushed him deep to the mud.
Atty. Feraren advised the accused that if he really committed the offense, it would be better for him to execute an Extra Judicial Confession; otherwise if he will
not execute an Extra Judicial Confession he might be placed in a situation where the court will think that he fabricates the facts in his confession.
In the present case, the SC cannot see how this kind of advice rendered Atty. Ferraren incompetent, or could ever be considered as telltale sign of the
involuntariness of the confession. It was nothing more than a straight-forward exhortation for appellant to tell the truth as to his participation in the crime, if he
indeed had something to do with it. A confession is not rendered involuntary merely because defendant was told that he should tell the truth or that it would be
better for him to tell the truth. Telling the accused that it would be better for him to speak or tell the truth does not furnish any Inducement, or a sufficient
inducement, to render objectionable a confession thereby obtained, unless threats or promises are applied. These threats or promises which the accused
must successfully prove in order to make his confession inadmissible, must take the form of violence, intimidation, a promise of reward or leniency. Atty.
Ferraren's proposition that appellant may be suspected of merely fabricating facts if he does execute a confession hardly qualifies as a "threat" or "promise" as
herein contemplated.
The other "irregularity" apparently relates to a denial of the right to have an independent counsel of one's own choice, inasmuch as appellant claims that
the police authorities ignored his initial request to wait for his mother who was scouting for a lawyer. Appellant is nonetheless deemed to have waived this
defect when, as shown by the following excerpts from his extrajudicial confession that he agreed to be represented by Atty. Ferraren in lieu of a counsel of his
own choice. Having been cleared of any irregularity, we therefore uphold the admissibility of appellant's extrajudicial confession which, by itself, is sufficient
basis for his conviction.
In fine, appellant's conviction for robbery with homicide as charged is in order. We nonetheless have to correct that portion of the appealed decision
(specifically in the dispositive portion) where the trial court, while correctly imposing the penalty of reclusion perpetua pursuant to the first paragraph of Article
294 of the Revised Penal Code, apparently equated such penalty with life imprisonment. Both are different and distinct penalties. As explained in People vs.
Baguio, The Code does not prescribe the penalty of 'life imprisonment' for any of the felonies therein defined, that penalty being invariably imposed for serious
offense penalized not by the Revised Penal Code but by special laws.
WHEREFORE, save for the slight modification removing from its dispositive portion the alternative reference to "life imprisonment", the
assailed decision dated March 31, 1989 convicting appellant Sabas Calvo, Jr. of the crime of robbery with homicide, is hereby AFFIRMED in all
other respects.

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[G.R. No. 91694.

March 14, 1997]

Held: Yes, it is admissible.

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