SPECIAL FIRST DIVISION
G.R. No. 197252, June 23, 2021
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. NESTOR DE ATRAS Y ELLA, ET AL., ACCUSED; WENLITO DEPILLO Y BIORCO @ "WEWEN" AND LOLITO DEPILLO Y DEHIJIDO @ "LITO", Accused-Appellants.
R E S O L U T I O N
PERLAS-BERNABE, J.:
In a Resolution1 dated June 15, 2016, the Court affirmed with modification the Decision2 dated October 28, 2010 of the Court of Appeals (CA) in C.A.-G.R. CEB C.R. H.C. No. 00889 finding accused-appellants Wenlito Depillo y Biorco @ "Wewen" (Wenlito) and Lolito Depillo y Dehijido @ "Lito" (Lolito; collectively, accused-appellants) guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of Murder, as defined and penalized under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code, the dispositive portion of the said Resolution reads:
WHEREFORE, the Court AFFIRMS the decision promulgated on October 28, 2010 subject to the MODIFICATIONS that accused-appellants WENLITO DEPILLO y BIORCO @ WEWEN and LOLITO DEPILLO y DEHIJIDO @ LITO shall pay to the Heirs of Anatolio Calumba, Jr. the amounts of P75,000.00 as civil indemnity, P75,000.00 as moral damages, P75,000.00 as exemplary damages, and P50,000.00 as temperate damages, with interest of 6% per annum on each item of the civil liability reckoned from the date of finality of this Resolution until fully paid; and ORDERS them to further pay the costs of suit.chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
SO ORDERED.3
Article 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.
From this lengthy disquisition, we summarize our ruling herein:
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 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:chanroblesvirtualawlibrarya) Law
b) Contracts
c) Quasi-contracts
d) x x x
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.
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 provisions of Article 1155 of the Civil Code, that should thereby avoid any apprehension on a possible privation of right by prescription.9
Under the doctrine of finality of judgment or immutability of judgment, a decision that has acquired finality becomes immutable and unalterable, and may no longer be modified in any respect, even if the modification is meant to correct erroneous conclusions of fact and law, and whether it be made by the court that rendered it or by the Highest Court of the land. Any act which violates this principle must immediately be struck down, Nonetheless, the immutability of final judgments is not a hard and fast rule as the Court has the power and prerogative to relax the same in order to serve the demands of substantial justice considering: (a) matters of life, liberty, honor, or property; (b) the existence of special or compelling circumstances; (c) the merits of the case; (d) a cause not entirely attributable to the fault or negligence of the party favored by the suspension of the rules; (e) the lack of any showing that the review sought is merely frivolous and dilatory; and (f) that the other party will not be unjustly prejudiced thereby.11 (Emphases and underscoring in the original)
Endnotes:
1Rollo, pp. 64-70. Signed by then Division Clerk of Court (now retired En Banc Clerk of Court) Edgar O. Aricheta.
2 Id. at 3-13. Penned by Associate Justice Edwin D. Sorongon with Executive Justice Portia A. Hormachuelos and Associate Justice Socorro B. Inting, concurring.
3 Id. at 69.
4 Id. at 61. Signed by P/Supt. I Roberto R. Rabo and received by the Court on August 31, 2016.
5 Id. at 62-63. Signed by Medical Officer III Benevito A. Fontanilla, M.D.
6 See Entry of Judgment; id. at 86-87. Signed by Deputy Clerk of Court and Chief Judicial Records Officer Basilia T. Ringol.
7 See People v. Santiago, G.R. No. 228819, July 24, 2019, citing People v. Culas, 810 Phil. 205, 209 (2017).
8 Id.
9 Id.
10 797 Phil. 386 (2016).
11 Id. at 389.cralawredlibrary