THIRD
DIVISION
PEOPLE
OF THE
PHILIPPINES,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
G.
R.
No. 120549
May
6,
1997
-versus-
ENRIQUITO
UNARCE,
Accused-Appellant.
R
E S O L U
T I O N
MELO, J.:
There is seemingly
an error in our decision of April 4, 1997 which bears on the imposable
penalty.
Republic Act No. 7659,
the law re-imposing the death penalty, should not have been applied for
said statute took effect only on December 31, 1993, while the crime of
murder herein involved was committed on November 16, 1992.
The Court thus motu
proprio corrects itself by modifying the last paragraph and the
dispositive
portion of the decision dated April 4, 1997, to read:
Considering that the
crime of murder was committed on November 16, 1992, Republic Act No.
7659,
"An Act To Impose The Death Penalty On Certain Heinous Crimes, Amending
For That Purpose The Revised Penal Code, As Amended, Other Special
Penal
Laws, And For Other Purposes", which was enacted on December 31, 1993,
does not apply. The applicable legal provision is Article 248 of the
Revised
Penal Code, before its latest amendment which imposed the penalty of
reclusion
temporal in its maximum period to death for the crime of murder.
In view of the presence
of the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender, the proper
penalty
is reclusion temporal in its maximum period which is the minimum period
of the prescribed penalty of reclusion temporal maximum to death in
conformity
with said Article 248, before its amendment, in relation to Article
64[2].
Applying the
Indeterminate
Sentence Law, the imposable penalty is an indeterminate sentence within
the range of prision mayor in its maximum period, as the minimum, to
reclusion
temporal in its maximum period, as the maximum, [People v. Sarol, 139
SCRA
125 (1985)].
WHEREFORE, the decision
appealed from is hereby MODIFIED, and accused-appellant is hereby
sentenced
to suffer the indeterminate penalty of ten [10] years and one [1] day
of
prision mayor, as minimum, to seventeen [17] years, four [4] months,
and
one [1] day of reclusion temporal, as maximum [People vs. Sarol,
supra].cralaw:red
Cost against appellant.cralaw:red
SO ORDERED.
Narvasa, C.J.,
Davide,
Jr., Francisco and Panganiban, JJ., concur. |