PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES VS.

MALIAO
(G.R. No. 178058 July 31, 2009)
Accomplice is also Liable
FACTS:

On an ill-fated night of March 17, 1998, the victim left her house to go to a nearby house where
her grandaunt resides. Her mother and her grandaunt both subsequently left to go to a mini-carnival.
When the grandaunt went back home the victim was no longer there. The parents then searched for the
victim in the entire neighborhood but the victim was nowhere to be found. The next day, a naked and
lifeless body of the victim, who is a minor and in the tender age of six (6) years old, was found in a vacant
lot near her house.

An investigation was executed by the police authorities and a cartographic sketch of the suspect
was prepared by an artist of the NBI. Days have passed when the police received a report from a
concerned citizen about a bloodstained shirt in a vacant slot near the vicinity of the carnival. During the
investigation in the site a police officer has noticed a man who resembles the cartographic sketch of the
suspect, the man turned out to be accused-appellant Jessie Maliao. Upon interrogation, Maliao told the
police officers that he was bothered by his conscience and divulged the perpetrators Bohol and Chiong.

Maliao executed an extrajudicial confession narrating the pertinent information that lead to the
commission of the crime. There he narrated the horrible experience that the victim had to endure in the
hands of Bohol and Chiong and added that through the whole ordeal he was just there at the scene
doing nothing but to watch and to satisfy himself by masturbating and insisted that he did not take part
in the rape of the victim.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the accused-appellant Maliaos guilt as accomplice in the crime of rape with
homicide proven beyond reasonable doubt.

RULING:

Yes. To hold a person liable as an accomplice, two elements must concur: (1) community of
design, which means that the accomplice knows of, and concurs with, the criminal design of the principal
by direct participation; and (2) the performance by the accomplice of previous or simultaneous acts that
are not indispensable to the commission of the crime. In this case, Maliao facilitated the commission of
the crime by providing his own house as the venue thereof. His presence throughout the commission of
the heinous offense, without him doing anything to prevent the malefactors or help the victim,
indubitably show community of design and cooperation, although he had no direct participation in the
execution thereof.

Having admitted his involvement in the crime and considering the weave of evidence presented
by the prosecution, seamlessly linking Maliaos participation in the heinous offense, as elucidated by the
autopsy report and testimonies of other prosecution witnesses, no doubt can be entertained as to
Maliaos guilt. Beyond reasonable doubt, he is guilty as accomplice to the crime of rape with homicide.