ChanRobles Virtual law Library

EN BANC

Gentlemen:

Quoted hereunder, for your information, is a resolution of this Court dated AUG 3 2004.

G.R. Nos. 164373-74 (Arthur Pangilinan and Reynaldo Yambot vs. The Secretary of Justice, The Director of the Bureau of Corrections, and the Superintendent of the New Bilibid Prisons.)

R E S O L U T I O N

Before the Court is a petition for prohibition with prayer for temporary restraining order or status quo order filed on July 26, 2004, praying that respondents be restrained from carrying out petitioners' scheduled execution on August 20, 2004.

Petitioners Arthur Pangilinan and Reynaldo Yambot were two of the appellants in People vs. Hamton. 1 On January 14, 2003, the Court promulgated its Decision where they were found guilty of kidnapping for ransom and sentenced to death. Both filed their respective motions for reconsideration, which were denied by the Court on March 11, 2003. Said Decision became final and executory on April 30, 2003.

Petitioners now claim that the Court should have conducted a second voting on whether the death penalty should be imposed on petitioners, pursuant to Article 47 of the Revised Penal Code; otherwise, there would be a deprivation of a constitutional right, a denial of equal protection of the laws, citing People vs. Purazo. 2

The petition must be dismissed on two grounds:

(1) The present petition is, in effect, a second motion for reconsideration, which is a clever subterfuge to circumvent the well-entrenched rule that no second motion for reconsideration will be entertained by the Court;3 and

(2) The Court has complied with Art. 47 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended by Rep. Act No. 7659.

IN VIEW OF THE FOREGOING, the petition is DISMISSED for lack of merit.

Sandoval-Gutierrez, J., on leave.

Very truly yours,

(Sgd.) LUZVIMINDA D. PUNO
Clerk of Court