PEOPLE V RICOHERMOSO

L – 30527 – 28 | March 29, 1974 | J. Aquino

Avoidance of Greater Evil or Injury 

Facts:

Geminiano de Leon, together with his common-law wife, son Marianito de Leon and one Rizal Rosales, chanced upon Pio Ricohermoso. Owning a parcel of land, which Ricohermoso cultivated as kaingin, Geminiano asked about his share of palay harvest and added that she should be allowed to taste the palay harvested from his land. Ricohermoso said Geminiano could collect the palay anytime.

Upon returning from his trip to Barrio Bagobasin, Geminiano dropped by Ricohermoso’s house and asked him about the palay, to which the latter answered defiantly that he will not give him the palay, whatever happens. Geminiano remonstrated and that point (as if by prearrangement), Ricohermoso unsheathed his bolo, while his father-in-law Severo Padernal got an axe, and attacked Geminiano. At the same time and place, Ricohermoso’s brother-in-law Juan Padernal suddenly embraced Marianito. They grappled and rolled down the hill, at which point Marianito passed out. When he regained consciousness, he discovered that the rifle he carried beforehand was gone and that his father was mortally wounded.

The defendants shifted the responsibility of killing in their version of the case.

 

Issue:

W/N appellant Juan Padernal can invoke the justifying circumstance of avoidance of a greater evil or injury

 

Held:

No. Juan Padernal’s reliance on the justifying circumstance is erroneous because his act in preventing Marianito from shooting Ricohermoso and Severo Padernal, the aggressors in this case, was designed to insure the killing of Geminiano de Leon without any risk to the assailants and not an act to prevent infliction of greater evil or injury. His intention was to forestall any interference in the assault.

Treachery was also appreciated in the case. The trial court convicted the appellants with lesiones leves, from an attempted murder charge with respect to Marianito de Leon.

Judgment as to Juan Padernal affirmed.

(Note: Severo Padernal withdrew his appeal, thus, in effect, accepted the prosecution’s version of the case and trial court’s finding of guilt.)