Conspiracy - G.R. No. 175781

G.R. No. 175781

"x x x.

         In People v. Bautista,[21] the Court reiterated the hornbook principle of conspiracy, to wit:

            Conspiracy exists when two or more persons come to an agreement concerning the commission of a felony and decide to commit it.  Where all the accused acted in concert at the time of the commission of the offense, and it is shown by such acts that they had the same purpose or common design and were united in its execution, conspiracy is sufficiently established.  It must be shown that all participants performed specific acts which such closeness and coordination as to indicate a common purpose or design to commit the felony.

            x x x x

           Each conspirator is responsible for everything done by his confederates which follows incidentally in the execution of a common design as one of its probable and natural consequences even though it was not intended as part of the original design. x x x[22] (Emphasis supplied)

           

         In this case, the existence of a conspiracy has been established by the testimony of Raymundo Zamora, positively identifying all three accused-appellants as the ones he saw and heard transacting with Francisca Talaro on April 24, 1994 to kill Atty. Melvin Alipio for the price of P60,000.00, and pointing to Lolito Aquino as the one who demanded and received part of the payment after Atty. Alipio had been killed.  The credibility of Raymundo Zamora's testimony is further bolstered by Lolito Aquino's admission[23] that he and Renato Ramos even conducted surveillance on the victim a day before Renato Ramos carried out the shooting, and that the motorcycle used as a getaway vehicle belonged to him.  Rodolfo Duzon also pointed to Renato Ramos as the gunman; he also pointed to Renato Ramos and Norberto (Jun) Adviento as the ones who threatened to kill him if he talks to anyone about the shooting.  All the proven circumstances point to the conclusion that accused-appellants acted in concert to assure the success of the execution of the crime; hence, the existence of a conspiracy is firmly established.

x x x."