Case Digest: People vs. Real G.R. No.93436, March 24, 1995

 
People vs. Real
G.R. No.93436, March 24, 1995
 
Facts:
On March 17, 1978, at around 9:00 a.m., in the public market of Aroroy, Masbate, appellant and Edgardo Corpus, both vendors, engaged in a heated argument over the right to use the market table to display their fish. The two protagonists momentarily kept their peace but after awhile Corpus raised his voice again and said something to appellant. When Corpus kept on walking to and fro near the disputed fish table, appellant started to sharpen his bolo while murmuring to himself. Once Corpus turned around with his back towards appellant, the latter hacked him on the nape. The blow caused Corpus to collapse. He was rushed to a medical clinic. Appellant admitted hacking Corpus but claimed that he did so out of humiliation and anger when the victim threw his fish in the presence of so many people. 
After trial, the court convicted appellant and sentenced him to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua and to pay the heirs of the victim the sum of P30,000.00 and costs. Hence, this appeal. 
Issue:
Whether or not the trial court and the Solicitor General are in error when they held that the attendant aggravating circumstance was reiteracion and not reincidencia 
 
 
Held:
Yes. In recidivism or reincidencia, the offender shall have been previously convicted by final judgment of another crime embraced in the same title of the Revised Penal Code. In reiteracion, the offender shall have been punished previously for an offense to which the law attaches an equal or greater penalty or for two or more crimes to which it attaches a lighter penalty. Unlike in reincidencia, the offender in reiteracion commits a crime different in kind from that for which he was previously tried and convicted. Appellant was previously convicted of ill-treatment by deed (Revised Penal Code, Article 266, Title Eight) and grave threats (Revised Penal Code, Article 282, Title Nine). He was convicted of homicide in the instant criminal case (Revised Penal Code, Article 249, Title Eight). Inasmuch as homicide and ill- treatment by deed fall under Title Eight, the aggravating circumstance to be appreciated against him is recidivism under Article 14[g] rather than reiteracion under Article 14 (10) of the Revised Penal Code. There is no reiteracion because that circumstance requires that the previous offenses should not be embraced in the same title of the Code. Appellant is therefore convicted of homicide, appreciating in his favor the mitigating circumstance of passion and obfuscation, which is offset by the aggravating circumstance of recidivism.