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PHILIPPINES: S.C. saves 4 from death penalty

The Supreme Court saved from execution the 4 accused in the Payumo Massacre in which a mother and her 3 children were killed in their house in Santa Rosa, Laguna, in 1995.

 In a 41-page decision, the full Court instead modified to reclusi�n perpetua sentences the death sentence on 3 of the accused. The penalty for reclusi�n perpetua is imprisonment from 20 years and 1 day to 40 years.

 Maximo Delmo, Edmund Delmo and Francisco Lapiz were also sentenced to 8 to 14 years imprisonment for frustrated murder in connection with the injuries they inflicted of Helen Grace Sweet Payumo, an 11-year-old who survived the ordeal.

 The 3 were also ordered to pay almost P1 million in damages and civil indemnity to the heirs of Nancy Payumo, 40; her daughter Joaana Rose, 17; and Maria Angela, 15; and son John Anton, 13--all of whom were stabbed to death.

 One of the accused, Danilo Lapiz, was acquitted for lack of evidence and ordered immediate released from the New Bilibid Prison.

 The justices said Lapizs extrajudicial confession--naming the 2 Delmos and his elder brother Franciso as the culprits--is inadmissible because police investigators took it in violation of his constitutional right to have a competent and independent counsel. Besides, the justices noted, Lapiz was never identified as one of the killers.

 Court records show that the 3 accused went into the house of the victims on Panorama Ville, barangay Dita, Santa Rosa, Laguna, in the early morning of September 9, 1995. They hogtied, blindfolded and gagged Nancy and her children before repeatedly stabbing them to death.

 Helen Grace said Maximo Delmo, whom she calls Tito Imoy, being a friend of her father, rummaged through their closets. She said it was Francisco Lapiz who stabbed her and the other women and that Edmund Delmo killed her brother. Her father, Angelito, was separated from her mother and was not in the house at the time.

 Nancy suffered 11 stab wounds, bruises, hematoma and four incised wounds; Joanna Rose had 22 stab wounds and 2 incised wounds; Maria Angela suffered 29 stab wounds, a puncture wound, a lacerated wound, 4 incised wounds and had the base of her skull broken; and John Anton had 15 stab wounds and 3 incised wounds.

 Helen Grace was stabbed once in the neck and the waist.

 The justices concurred with the findings of the Bi�an Regional Trial Court in Laguna that Helen Graces testimony is positive and categorical in pointing to appellants as the malefactors.

 In its great length and vast detail her testimony might appear inconsistent with respect to minor details. But her testimony bears the badges of candor and truth, read the decision, written by Associate Justice Leonardo Quisumbing.

 The Supreme Court said the bare denials of the Delmos and Francisco Lapiz carry no evidentiary weight or probative value against the positive identification of Helen Grace. It said their defense shows that they were not far away from the crime scene when the murders took place.

 But the justices ruled that the death penalty should not be imposed, because there were no aggravating or mitigating circumstances. Murder is penalized with reclusi�n perpetua to death.

 They said the trial court erred in considering abuse of superior strength as a generic aggravating circumstance separately from treachery, which qualified the killings to murder.

 The Supreme Court added that cruelty as a generic aggravating circumstance should also be ruled out. The mere fact that a victim suffered 10 stab wounds does not prove that the accused inflicted the injuries to unnecessarily prolong the physical suffering of the victim.

 For cruelty to be appreciated against an accused, it must be shown that the accused for his pleasure and satisfaction caused the victim unnecessary physical and moral pain, the decision said.