SECOND DIVISION
G.R. No. 204873, July 27, 2016
ESTHER PASCUAL, Petitioner, v. PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Respondent.
D E C I S I O N
DEL CASTILLO, J.:
This Petition for Review on Certiorari under Rule 45 of the Rules of Court seeks to reverse and set aside the April 13, 2012 Decision1 and the October 18, 2012 Resolution2 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-GR. CR No. 32138, which affirmed the July 25, 2008 Decision3 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Las Piñas City, Branch 201, in Criminal Case No. 04-1039, finding petitioner Esther Pascual (Pascual) guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the complex crime of Estafa through Falsification of Public Document.
Proceedings before the Regional Trial Court
Pascual and Remegio Montero (Montero) were indicted for the crime of Estafa through Falsification of Public Document for colluding and making it appear that they had facilitated the payment of the capital gains tax of private complainant Ernesto Y. Wee to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) when, in truth and in fact, they converted and misappropriated the money for their own personal benefit. The charge against these two stemmed from the following Information filed by the Office of the Ombudsman:ChanRoblesVirtualawlibrary
That on or about June 26, 2003 in Las Piñas City, Philippines and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the above-named accused ESTHER PASCUAL a low ranking public officer, being an employee of the City Assessor's Office, Las Piñas City, while in the performance of her official function, committing the offense in relation to her office, and taking advantage of her official position, conspiring and confederating with one REMEGIO MONTERO, a private citizen and helping each other, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously defraud one ERNESTO Y. WEE thru LEONOR A. TIONGCO in the following manner, to wit: the said accused received from said ERNESTO Y. WEE thru LEONOR A. TIONGCO the amount of P130,000.00 for the purpose of paying the Capital Gains Tax on a real estate property which complainant bought in Las Piñas City, with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), forge and falsify or cause to be forged and falsified B1R Official Receipt No. 2145148, in the amount of P102,810.00 as payment of Capital Gains Tax of said ERNESTO Y. WEE by making it appear that they paid said amount of P102,810.00 with the BIR, when in truth and in fact, accused fully well knew that there was no payment made with the BIR and did then and there willfully, unlawfully and criminally take, convert and misappropriate for their own personal use and benefit the aforesaid amount of P130,000.00, Philippine Currency, to the damage and prejudice of said ERNESTO Y. WEE in the aforesaid sum.Montero was arraigned on April 11, 2005, but was later acquitted of the crime charged for insufficiency of evidence in a Decision rendered on March 31, 2008. On the other hand, Pascual was arraigned on January 10, 2007; she entered a negative plea to the crime charged.
CONTRARY TO LAW.4chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the Court hereby finds the accused Esther Pascual GUILTY beyond reasonable [doubt] of the complex crime of Estafa [through] Falsification of a Public Document and pursuant to the provisions of Article 315 and Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code, she is sentenced to suffer the penalty of Prision Mayor. Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the accused is sentenced to a prison term of Three (3) years of Prision [C]orrec[c]ional to Eight (8) years of Prision Mayor and a fine of P5,000.00.Pascual filed a Motion for Reconsideration but same was denied by the RTC; hence Pascual elevated her case to the CA.
By way of civil liability, the accused is ordered to pay the offended party the sum of P130,000.00 representing the sum given by private complainant duly received by the accused and the sum of P20,000.00 as attorney's fees.
SO ORDERED.5chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary
WHEREFORE, premises considered, the instant appeal is hereby DISMISSED for lack of merit. Accordingly, the assailed Decision of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 201, Las Piñas City convicting the accused of the complex crime of estafa through Falsification of Public Document is AFFIRMED.In reaching the foregoing conclusion, the CA ruled that Estafa through Falsification of Public Document is not a singular offense but a complex crime where two different offenses are tried as one because one offense was committed as a necessary means to commit the other, or because a single act constitutes two or more grave or less grave felonies.
SO ORDERED.6chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary
Pascual now argues that the CA erred in upholding the judgment of the RTC and in giving foil weight and credence to the State's account of the indictment against her.I.
WHETHER THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS ERRED IN AFFIRMING THE JUDGMENT OF CONVICTION BY GIVING FULL WEIGHT AND CREDENCE TO THE PROSECUTION'S VERSION.II.
WHETHER THE HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS ERRED IN AFFIRMING THE DECISION OF THE REGIONAL TRIAL COURT DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE EVIDENCE ON RECORD FAILED TO SUPPORT A CONVICTION.7chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary
It was established that the accused won over Tiongco by appearing to have expertly facilitated transfers of title in the past while accelerating the payment of taxes along the way. To this end, she assured Tiongco that she knew people from the BIR to whom they could directly pay the capital gains tax for less. When Tiongco appealed apprehensive, she would sound urgent (she was allegedly absent from work for two days to accommodate Tiongco) and, at one point, incensed (she told Tiongco that she was wasting her time for not having the cash). To allay Tiongco's fears, the accused consistently appeared resolute in her purpose especially when it was time for her to pay the capital gains tax. In this instance, she 'transacted' inside the BIR in plain view of Tiongco and thereafter presented her with a photocopy of the BIR receipt that later turned out to be forged.We now turn to the proper imposable penalty.
The deceit by which the charade was accomplished is unmistakable. Deceit as used in this instance is defined as any act or devise intended to deceive; a specie of concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading. Concomitantly, for it to prosper, the following elements must concur: (a) that an accused defrauded another by abuse of confidence, or by means of deceit; and (b) that damage and prejudice capable of pecuniary estimation is caused the offended party or third person.
In the present instance, the accused made certain that Tiongco would fall prey to her artifice by presenting herself as someone with extensive connections in the BIR and the Registry of Deeds being herself an employee of the Assessor's Office whose function is the appraisal and assessment of real properties essentially for taxation purposes. She did not relent until Tiongco prepared the amount of P130,000.00 supposedly necessary for the payment of taxes. The accused guaranteed that the money will go as intended because she has done it many times before and her transactions turned out well. This, of course, was pure farce because the title of the property was not transferred to the private respondent's spouse as intended, while the capital gains tax remained unpaid. More importantly, it was discovered later that the BIR receipt furnished by the accused was a falsified document per testimony of Hie assistant district revenue officer of BIR-Las Piñas. This constitutes as the other half of the offense.
Falsification of public document carries with it the following elements: (a) That the offender is a public officer, employee, or notary public; (b) That he takes advantage of his official position; and (c) That he falsifies a document by causing it to appear that persons have participated in any act or proceeding.
Naturally, the accused attempted to deny having forged or falsified the BIR receipt, alleging that there was no direct evidence presented that would link her to the charge of falsification.
Indeed, there was no one from the prosecution that witnessed the accused in the act of falsifying or forging the BIR receipt. However, while direct evidence is scarce, the circumstances surrounding the events that led to her indictment speak of no one but the accused as the perpetrator of the offense. For instance, she did not contradict Tiongco's testimony that after she received the money intended for the payment of the capital gains tax, she and her lady companion went inside the BIR office supposedly to pay the capital gains tax. Neither did she deny Tiongco's testimony that she later came out of the BIR office with the forged BIR receipt which she furnished to Tiognco. Quite revealingly, the accused also remained mum about the testimony of the assistant revenue district officer, Ma. Nimfa Peñalosa De Villa, who disclosed that the document under discussion was unauthentic because it did not come from the BIR.
Clear as they are, the circumstances mentioned earlier are indubitable manifestations that the person responsible for the falsity is the accused herself given that she was the one who supposedly made the transaction inside the BIR, and that she had it in her possession before she passed it off as an official transaction receipt from the BIR. Conviction is not always arrived at by relying on direct evidence alone. Sometimes, the testimonies of witnesses, when credible and trustworthy, are sufficient to bring out a conviction and must be given full faith and credence when no reason to falsely testify is shown.
In the case at bench, Tiongco's testimony is neither erratic nor marred by inconsistency, glaring or otherwise. She was straightforward and narrated the events without missing the focal points. Her testimony, along with that of the assistant revenue district officer, is more than sufficient to espouse the conclusion that the accused personally forged the receipt and deceived Tiongco therewith.10chanroblesvirtuallawlibrary
Endnotes:
1 CA rollo, pp. 107-115; penned by Associate Justice Stephen C. Cruz and concurred in by Associate Justices Vicente S.E. Veloso and Myra V. Garcia-Femandez.
2 Id. at 145-146.
3 Records, pp. 822-828; penned by Presiding Judge Lorna Navarro-Domingo.
4 Id. at 1.
5 Id. at 827-828.
6 CA rollo, pp. 114-115.
7Rollo, p. 16.
8People v. Remullo, 432 Phil. 643, 655 (2002).
9Goma v. Court of Appeals, 596 Phil. 1, 10 (2009).
10Rollo, pp. 30-32.
11Obando v. People, 638 Phil. 296, 315 (2010).