People-vs.-Lamahang-digest

G.R. No.
L-43530 August 3, 1935
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, plaintiff-appellee,

vs. AURELIO LAMAHANG, defendant-appellant.
RECTO, J.:
The defendant Aurelio Lamahang is before this court on appeal from a decision of the Court of First Instance of Iloilo, finding him
guilty of attempted robbery and sentencing him to suffer two years and four months of prision correccional and to an additional
penalty of ten years and one day of prision mayor for being an habitual delinquent, with the accessory penalties of the law, and to
pay the costs of the proceeding.
FACTS:
At early dawn on March 2, 1935, policeman Jose Tomambing, who was patrolling his beat on Delgado and C.R. Fuentes streets of
the City of Iloilo, caught the accused in the act of making an opening with an iron bar on the wall of a store of cheap goods located
on the last named street. At that time the owner of the store, Tan Yu, was sleeping inside with another Chinaman. The accused had
only succeeded in breaking one board and in unfastening another from the wall, when the policeman showed up, who instantly
arrested him and placed him under custody.
The provincial fiscal of Iloilo, the trial judge and the Solicitor-General unanimously declared the facts as constituting attempted
robbery.
ISSUE:
Whether Lamahang was erroneously convicted of attempted robbery
RULING:
Yes, it was erroneous. It is our opinion that the attempt to commit an offense which the Penal Code punishes is that which has a
logical relation to a particular, concrete offense; that, which is the beginning of the execution of the offense by overt acts of the
perpetrator, leading directly to its realization and consummation. The attempt to commit an indeterminate offense, inasmuch as its
nature in relation to its objective is ambiguous, is not a juridical fact from the standpoint of the Penal Code.
There is no doubt that in the case at bar it was the intention of the accused to enter Tan Yu's store by means of violence, passing
through the opening which he had started to make on the wall, in order to commit an offense which, due to the timely arrival of
policeman Tomambing, did not develop beyond the first steps of its execution. But it is not sufficient, for the purpose of imposing
penal sanction, that an act objectively performed constitute a mere beginning of execution; it is necessary to establish its
unavoidable connection, like the logical and natural relation of the cause and its effect, with the deed which, upon its consummation,
will develop into one of the offenses defined and punished by the Code; it is necessary to prove that said beginning of execution, if
carried to its complete termination following its natural course, without being frustrated by external obstacles nor by the voluntary
desistance of the perpetrator, will logically and necessarily ripen into a concrete offense.
Thus, in case of robbery, in order that the simple act of entering by means of force or violence another person's dwelling may be
considered an attempt to commit this offense, it must be shown that the offender clearly intended to take possession, for the
purpose of gain, of some personal property belonging to another. In the instant case, there is nothing in the record from which such
purpose of the accused may reasonably be inferred. From the fact established and stated in the decision, that the accused on the
day in question was making an opening by means of an iron bar on the wall of Tan Yu's store, it may only be inferred as a logical
conclusion that his evident intention was to enter by means of force said store against the will of its owner. That his final objective,
once he succeeded in entering the store, was to rob, to cause physical injury to the inmates, or to commit any other offense, there is
nothing in the record to justify a concrete finding.
The fact under consideration does not constitute attempted robbery but attempted trespass to dwelling. Under article 280 of the
Revised Penal Code, this offense is committed when a private person shall enter the dwelling of another against the latter's will. The
accused may be convicted and sentenced for an attempt to commit this offense in accordance with the evidence and the following
allegation contained in the information: "... the accused armed with an iron bar forced the wall of said store by breaking a board and
unfastening another for the purpose of entering said store ... and that the accused did not succeed in entering the store due to the
presence of the policeman on beat Jose Tomambing, who upon hearing the noise produced by the breaking of the wall, promptly
approached the accused ... ." Under the circumstances of this case the prohibition of the owner or inmate is presumed. Against the
accused must be taken into consideration the aggravating circumstances of nighttime and former convictions, — inasmuch as the
record shows that several final judgments for robbery and theft have been rendered against him — and in his favor, the mitigating
circumstance of lack of instruction. The breaking of the wall should not be taken into consideration as an aggravating circumstance
inasmuch as this is the very fact which in this case constitutes the offense of attempted trespass to dwelling.
Because of the presence of two aggravating circumstances and one mitigating circumstance the penalty must be imposed in its
maximum period. Pursuant to article 29 of the same Code, the accused is not entitled to credit for one-half of his preventive
imprisonment.

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G.R. No.

L-43530 August 3, 1935

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, plaintiff-appellee,

Whether Lamahang was erroneously convicted of attempted robbery

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