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    37 People v. Beronilla CASE DIGEST

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    erxha lado
    Manuel Beronilla and others were convicted of murder for executing Arsenio Borjal, the elected mayor of La Paz, Abra during the outbreak of war. Beronilla was appointed military mayor by his regimental commander and received orders authorizing him to appoint a jury to try persons accused of aiding the enemy. When Borjal returned to Abra, he was tried and sentenced to death based on complaints from residents. Beronilla reported this to his superior, who approved of his actions. However, Beronilla and others were later convicted for the murder, but it was found that they acted on lawful orders from superiors and showed no malice or criminal intent. Additionally, they should have been granted

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    37 People v. Beronilla CASE DIGEST

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    erxha lado
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    Manuel Beronilla and others were convicted of murder for executing Arsenio Borjal, the elected mayor of La Paz, Abra during the outbreak of war. Beronilla was appointed military mayor by his regimental commander and received orders authorizing him to appoint a jury to try persons accused of aiding the enemy. When Borjal returned to Abra, he was tried and sentenced to death based on complaints from residents. Beronilla reported this to his superior, who approved of his actions. However, Beronilla and others were later convicted for the murder, but it was found that they acted on lawful orders from superiors and showed no malice or criminal intent. Additionally, they should have been granted

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    Manuel Beronilla and others were convicted of murder for executing Arsenio Borjal, the elected mayor of La Paz, Abra during the outbreak of war. Beronilla was appointed military mayor by his regimental commander and received orders authorizing him to appoint a jury to try persons accused of aiding the enemy. When Borjal returned to Abra, he was tried and sentenced to death based on complaints from residents. Beronilla reported this to his superior, who approved of his actions. However, Beronilla and others were later convicted for the murder, but it was found that they acted on lawful orders from superiors and showed no malice or criminal intent. Additionally, they should have been granted

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    170 views2 pages

    37 People v. Beronilla CASE DIGEST

    Uploaded by

    erxha lado
    Manuel Beronilla and others were convicted of murder for executing Arsenio Borjal, the elected mayor of La Paz, Abra during the outbreak of war. Beronilla was appointed military mayor by his regimental commander and received orders authorizing him to appoint a jury to try persons accused of aiding the enemy. When Borjal returned to Abra, he was tried and sentenced to death based on complaints from residents. Beronilla reported this to his superior, who approved of his actions. However, Beronilla and others were later convicted for the murder, but it was found that they acted on lawful orders from superiors and showed no malice or criminal intent. Additionally, they should have been granted

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    CASE NO.

    37

    PEOPLE vs. BERONILLA

    G.R. NO. L-4445, February 28, 1995

    Obedience to Lawful Order of a Superior

    FACTS: Manuel Beronilla et al. file an appeal from the judgement of the Abra CFI,
    which convicted them of murder for the execution of Arsenio Borjal, the elected mayor of La,
    Paz, Abra at the outbreak of war, which was found to be aiding the enemy. Borjal moved to
    Bangued because of death threats was succeeded by Military Mayor Manuel Beronilla, who
    was appointed by Lt. Col. Arbold, regimental commander of the 15th Infantry of the Phil.
    Army, operating as guerilla unit in Abra. Simultaneously upon his appointment, Beronilla
    received a memorandum which authorized him to appoint a jury of 12 bolo men to try
    persons accused of treason, espionage and aiding or abetting the enemy. Upon the return of
    Borjal and his family to Abra, to escape bombing in Bangued, he was placed under custody
    and tried and sentenced to death by the jury based on various complaints made by the
    residents. Beronilla reported this to Col. Arnold who replied, saying “I can only compliment
    you for your impartial but independent way of handling the whole case.”

    Two years thereafter, Beronilla, along with the executioner, digger and jury, were
    indicted for the murder of Borjal. Soon after, President Manuel Roxas issued Executive
    Proclamation 8, which granted amnesty to persons who committed acts in furtherance of the
    resistance to the enemy against persons aiding in the war efforts of the enemy. The rest of
    defendants applied and were granted amnesty, but Beronilla and others were convicted on the
    grounds that the crime was made on purely personal motives and that the crime was
    committed after the expiration of time limit for amnesty proclamation.

    ISSUE: Whether or not defendant-appellants’ actions are covered by justifying


    circumstances for obedience to lawful order of superior

    HELD: Yes. The accused acted upon orders of their superior officers, which as
    military subordinates, they could not question and obeyed in good faith without the being
    aware of its illegality. The evidence is sufficient to sustain the claim of the defense that arrest,
    prosecution and trial of Borjal was done in pursuant to express orders of superiors.
    Additionally, it could not be established that Beronilla received the radiogram from Colonel
    Volckmann, overall area commander, which called attention to the illegality of Borjal’s
    conviction and sentence. Had Beronilla known the violation, he would not have dared to
    report it to Arnold. The conduct of the accused also does not show malice on their part
    because of the conduct of the trial, defense through counsel given to Borjal, suspension of
    trial based on doubts of illegality and death sentence review sent to the superior officers.
    Criminal intent then could not be established. The maxim here is actus non facit reum,
    nisi mens rea (Crime is not committed if the mind of the person performing the act
    complained of to be innocent). Additionally, the lower court should not have denied their
    claim to the benefits of the Guerilla Amnesty Proclamation No. 8 inspite of contradictory
    dates of liberation of La Paz, Abra. Even if the dates were contradictory, the court should
    have found for the Beronila, et al because if there are “any reasonable doubt as to whether a
    given case falls within the (amnesty) proclamation should be resolved in favor of the
    accused.”

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