Special complex crime of kidnapping with murder not the proper offense

"Xxx.

The Court finds, however, that the offense of which appellants were convicted was erroneously designated.

Appellants were eventually charged with and convicted of the special complex crime of kidnapping with murder, defined in the last paragraph of Article 267 of the Revised Penal Code. In a special complex crime, the prosecution must prove each of the component offenses with the same precision that would be necessary if they were made the subject of separate complaints.28

In the case at bar, kidnapping was not sufficiently proven. Although appellants bound and gagged Chua and transported him to Bulacan against his will, they did these acts to facilitate his killing, not because they intended to detain or confine him. As soon as they arrived at the locus criminis, appellants wasted no time in killing him. That appellants' intention from the beginning was to kill the victim is confirmed by the conversation which Sumipo heard in the car in which Maritess said that a knife would be used to kill him so that it would not create noise.29 The subsequent demand for ransom was an afterthought which did not qualify appellants' prior acts as kidnapping.

People v. Padica30 instructs:

We have consistently held that where the taking of the victim was incidental to the basic purpose to kill, the crime is only murder, and this is true even if, before the killing but for purposes thereof, the victim was taken from one place to another. Thus, where the evident purpose of taking the victims was to kill them, and from the acts of the accused it cannot be inferred that the latter's purpose was actually to detain or deprive the victims of their liberty, the subsequent killing of the victims constitute the crime of murder, hence the crime of kidnapping does not exist and cannot be considered as a component felony to produce the complex crime of kidnapping with murder. In fact, as we held in the aforecited case of Masilang, et. al., although the accused had planned to kidnap the victim for ransom but they first killed him and it was only later that they demanded and obtained the money, such demand for ransom did not convert the crime into kidnapping since no detention or deprivation of liberty was involved, hence the crime committed was only murder.

That from the beginning of their criminal venture appellant and his brothers intended to kill the victim can be readily deduced from the manner by which they swiftly and cold-bloodedly snuffed out his life once they reached the isolated sugarcane plantation in Calamba, Laguna. Furthermore, there was no evidence whatsoever to show or from which it can be inferred that from the outset the killers of the victim intended to exchange his freedom for ransom money. On the contrary, the demand for ransom appears to have arisen and was consequently made as an afterthought, as it was relayed to the victim's family very much later that afternoon after a sufficient interval for consultation and deliberation among the felons who had killed the victim around five hours earlier.

x x x The fact alone that ransom money is demanded would not per se qualify the act of preventing the liberty of movement of the victim into the crime of kidnapping, unless the victim is actually restrained or deprived of his liberty for some appreciable period of time or that such restraint was the basic intent of the accused. Absent such determinant intent and duration of restraint, the mere curtailment of freedom of movement would at most constitute coercion.31 (Underscoring supplied)cralawlibrary

The crime committed was thus plain Murder. The killing was qualified by treachery. The victim was gagged, bound, and taken from Quezon City to an isolated place in Bulacan against his will to prevent him from defending himself and to facilitate the killing.

This Court's finding that the offense committed is Murder notwithstanding, the resulting penalty is the same. Under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code, murder shall be punished by reclusion perpetua to death. The use of a motor vehicle, having been alleged in the Information and proven, can be appreciated as a generic aggravating circumstance. There being one generic aggravating circumstance, the resulting penalty is death. In view, however, of the enactment of Republic Act No. 9346 on June 24, 2006 prohibiting the imposition of death penalty, the penalty is reduced to reclusion perpetua, without eligibility for parole.

Xxx."

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Appellee, v. PABLO L. ESTACIO, JR. and MARITESS ANG, Appellants. G.R. NO. 171655, July 22, 2009.

Source :

https://www.chanrobles.com/scdecisions/jurisprudence2009/jul2009/gr_171655_2009.php