Marie Hazel C.

Nala
Criminal Law 1

Case: The People of the Philippines, Plaintiff, appellee
Vs.
Julio Guillen, defendant, appellant

Facts: The Court of First Instance of Manila rendered judgement in case No. 2746 whereby Julio Guillen
is found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of murder and multiple frustrated murder
and death penalty with indemnification of the family of the victims in the sum of Php2,00.00.
That on March 10, 1947, the accused had pondered and executed the assassination of the
President Manuel Roxas in a meeting by the Liberal Party held at Plaza de Miranda in Quiapo,
Manila by throwing 2 hand grenades that caused the death of Simeon Varela and multiple
serious physical injuries to Alfredo Eva, Jose Fabio, Pedro Carillo, and Emilio Maglalang who
were standing close to the flatform, suffered by mortal wound from the fragments of hand
grenade.
Issue: whether or not the decision of the Court of First Instance to convict the appellant of murder
multiple frustrated murder was correct?
Whether or not sentence of death penalty was correct and should aggravating circumstances
should be considered?
Ruling: Yes. The decision of the court of first instance to convict the accused of murder for the death of
the victims was correct. According to the Revised Penal Code whether the main purpose is to kill
the president and unintentionally cause death to people around the venue would still
tantamount to murder.
No. As to the case of frustrated murder, the case should only qualify as attempted although the
intention is to kill the president but he did not succeeded in assassinating the president and the
said failure was not by reason of some cause or accident other than his own spontaneous
desistance.
Yes. In case of complex crime committed by the accused, Revised Penal Code 48 requires that
the penalty for the most serious crime should be applied in its maximum period. The penalty for
murder is reclusion temporal/ in its maximum period to death (Art. 248), thus, death sentence is
correct.
SC affirmed the decision of the First Court of Instance with unanimous vote for the crime of
murder and modified the crime from frustrated murder to attempted murder and sentence
death penalty with indemnification to the deceased Mr. Simeon Varela.