OG"N

FIRST DIVISION

[G.R. No. 132319. May 12, 2000]

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. FERNANDO

MADARANG y MAGNO, accused-appellant.

DECISION

PUNO, J.: HTML

What distinguishes man from beast is his intellect. Man's action is guided and
controlled by his mind. Law is designed for rational beings as it is based on
our inherent sense of right which is inseparable from reason. Thus, when
man's reasoning is so distorted by disease that he is totally incapable of
distinguishing right from wrong, he loses responsibility before the law. In the
case at bar, we are asked to resolve whether or not the accused, invoking
insanity, can claim exemption from liability for the crime he committed.

Accused FERNANDO MADARANG y MAGNO was charged with parricide for

killing his wife LILIA MADARANG in an Information which reads:
[1]

"That on or about September 3, 1993, at Poblacion, municipality

of Infante, province of Pangasinan, Philippines, and within the
jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, the above-named accused,
with evident premeditation and treachery, armed with a bladed
weapon, did then and there, wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously
attack and stab LILIA M. MADARANG, his legitimate wife,
inflicting upon her stab wound 4 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inch(es)long
and 3/16 of an inch wide, located just below the left clavicle 1 3/4
inch(es) lateral to the supra-sternal notch, and plowed along the
interpace slightly coursing upward and posteriorly and stab wound
1 inch in length, gaping and 3 1/2 inch(es) deep, located at the
right arm at its medial aspect, coursing upwards and medially
towards the apex of the right axilla which caused her
instantaneous death, to the damage and prejudice of the heirs of
Lilia M. Madarang."

"Contrary to Art. 246 of the Revised Penal Code."

At the arraignment, the accused refused to enter a plea. Pursuant to the
Rules, the trial court entered a "not guilty" plea for him. At the initial hearing of
the case on May 5, 1994, the accused's counsel manifested that his client had
been observed behaving in an abnormal manner inside the provincial jail.
Thus, the Court called the accused to the stand but he refused to answer any
of the questions propounded by the court. Hence, on the same date, the Court
issued an Order directing the transfer of the accused to the National Center
[2]

for Mental Health (NCMH) for psychiatric evaluation to determine his fitness to
stand trial. CODES

The initial examination of the accused at the NCMH revealed that he was
suffering from a form of psychosis known as schizophrenia. The accused was
detained at the hospital and was administered medication for his illness. On
June 19, 1996, after more than two (2) years of confinement, the accused was
discharged from the NCMH and recommitted to the provincial jail as he was
already found fit to face the charges against him. [3]

At the resumption of the hearing, a reverse trial was conducted. The accused
proceeded to adduce evidence on his claim of insanity at the time he
committed the offense.

As culled from the testimonies of the accused, his mother-in-law AVELINA

MIRADOR, and his daughter LILIFER MADARANG, the following facts were
established: The accused and Lilia Mirador were legally married and their
union was blessed with seven (7) children. The accused worked as a seaman
for sixteen (16) years. He was employed in a United States ship until 1972. In
1973, he worked as a seaman in Germany and stayed there for nine (9)
years, or until 1982. Thereafter, he returned to his family in Infanta,
Pangasinan, and started a hardware store business. His venture however
failed. Worse, he lost his entire fortune due to cockfighting. [4]

In the latter part of July 1993, the accused, his wife Lilia and their children
were forced to stay in the house of Avelina Mirador as the accused could no
longer support his family. Moreover, Lilia was then already heavy with their
eight child and was about to give birth. [5]

On September 3, 1993, at about 5:00 p.m., the accused and Lilia had a
squabble. The accused was jealous of another man and was accusing Lilia of
infidelity. In the heat of the fight and in the presence of their children, the
accused stabbed Lilia, resulting in her untimely demise. [6]
AVELINA MIRADOR was then in the pigpen when she heard the children of
the accused shouting and crying inside her house. She called out to them and
asked what was wrong. She received no reply. Her nephew barged into the
house and brought out the children one at a time, leaving the accused with
Lilia. While passing by Avelina, her nephew warned her: "You better run."
Avelina then saw the accused emerge from the house holding a bolo. She
scampered for safety. yacats
[7]

She declared that during the period that the accused and his family stayed in
her house, she did not notice anything peculiar in accused's behavior that
would suggest that he was suffering from any mental illness. Neither did she
know of any reason why the accused killed his wife as she never saw the two
engage in any argument while they were living with her.[8]

The accused declared that he has absolutely no recollection of the stabbing

incident. He could not remember where he was on that fateful day. He did not
know the whereabouts of his wife. It was only during one of the hearings when
his mother-in-law showed him a picture of his wife in a coffin that he learned
about her death. He, however, was not aware of the cause of her demise. He
claimed that he did not know whether he suffered from any mental illness and
did not remember being confined at the NCMH for treatment. [9]

DR. WILSON S. TIBAYAN, a resident doctor of the National Center for Mental
Health (NCMH), declared that the accused was committed to the NCMH on
July 4, 1994 upon order of the court. The NCMH conducted three (3) medical
and psychiatric evaluations of the accused during his confinement therein.
Based on the first medical report, dated August 2, 1994, the accused was
[10]

found to be suffering from insanity or psychosis, classified as

schizophrenia. Dr. Tibayan explained that schizophrenia is a mental
abnormality characterized by impaired fundamental reasoning, delusions,
hallucinations, preoccupation with one's thoughts, poor self-care, insight and
judgment, and impaired cognitive, social and occupational functions. The
patient may be incapable of distinguishing right from wrong or know what he is
doing. He may become destructive or have a propensity to attack any one if
his hallucinations were violent. A schizophrenic, however, may have lucid
[11]

intervals during which he may be able to distinguish right from

wrong. Dr. Tibayan opined that the accused's mental illness may have
[12]

begun even prior to his admission to the NCMH and it was highly possible that
he was already suffering from schizophrenia prior to his commission of the
crime.[13]
By December 21, 1994, as per the second medical report, the accused
was still suffering from schizophrenia. After one and a half years of
confinement, the third psychiatric evaluationof the accused, dated May 27,
1996, showed that his mental condition considerably improved due to
[14]

continuous medication. The accused was recommended to be discharged

from the NCMH and recommitted to jail to stand trial. olanski
[15]

The trial court convicted the accused as his evidence failed to refute the
presumption of sanity at the time he committed the offense. The dispositive
portion of the Decision reads:

"WHEREFORE, in view of all the foregoing facts and

circumstances of this case, this Court is of the view that accused
Fernando Madarang is of sound mind at the time of the
commission of the offense and that he failed to rebut by
convincing proof the evidence on record against him to exempt
him from criminal liablity. And since the death penalty was
suspended or abolished at the time of the commission of the
offense, this Court hereby sentences the accused FERNANDO
MADARANG y MAGNO to suffer the penalty of reclusion
perpetua and to pay the heirs of the victim the amount of Fifty
Thousand (P50,000.00) Pesos.

"SO ORDERED." [16]

Hence this appeal.

The appellant insists that at the time he stabbed his wife, he was completely
deprived of intelligence, making his criminal act involuntary. His unstable state
of mind could allegedly be deduced from the following:

First. He had no recollection of the stabbing incident. Hence, he was

completely unaware of his acts that fateful day and must have committed the
crime without the least discernment.

Second. His behavior at the time of the stabbing proved he was then
afflicted with schizophrenia. He cited the testimony of Dr. Tibayan that a
schizophrenic may go into extremes -- he may be violent and destructive, or
very silent and self-focused. The appellant exhibited his violent tendencies on
that fateful day. He killed his wife and Avelina and her nephew were so
frightened that they ran away at the sight of him holding a bolo. He did not
seem to recognize anybody and could have turned to anyone and inflicted
further injury. He avers that this is peculiar only to persons who are mentally
deranged for a sane person who just committed a crime would have
appeared remorseful and repentant after realizing that what he did was
wrong.

Third. The appellant also relies on Dr. Tibayan's opinion that there was
a high possibility that he was already suffering from insanity prior to his
commission of the crime on September 3, 1993. The defense posits
[17]

that his mental illness may have been caused by his loss of fortune. His
hardware business, which he started through 16 years of working as a
seaman, went bankrupt. He ended up virtually dependent on his mother-in-law
for his family's support and all these may have been beyond his capacity to
handle. haideem

The appellant further contends that the fact that he and his wife never
engaged in a fight prior to that fateful day should be considered. The marked
change in his behavior when he uncharacteristically quarreled with his wife on
that day and suddenly turned violent on her confirms that he was mentally
disturbed when he committed the crime.

Lastly, the appellant urges that he had no motive to kill Lilia who was
scheduled to give birth to their eighth child three (3) days prior to the killing.
Unless overpowered by something beyond his control, nobody in his right
mind would kill his wife who was carrying his child. Jealousy, the appellant
posits, is not a sufficient reason to kill a pregnant spouse.

We find these arguments without merit.

In all civilized nations, an act done by a person in a state of insanity cannot be

punished as an offense. The insanity defense is rooted on the basic moral
assumption of criminal law. Man is naturally endowed with the faculties of
understanding and free will. The consent of the will is that which renders
human actions laudable or culpable. Hence, where there is a defect of the
understanding, there can be no free act of the will. An insane accused is not
morally blameworthy and should not be legally punished. No purpose of
criminal law is served by punishing an insane accused because by reason of
his mental state, he would have no control over his behavior and cannot be
deterred from similar behavior in the future. [18]

A number of tests evolved to determine insanity under the law. In Anglo-

American jurisprudence, the traditional test is the M'Naghten rule of
1843 which states that "to establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it
must be clearly proved that, at the time of committing the act, the party
accused was laboring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind,
as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did
know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong." The M'Naghten
rule is a cognitive measure of insanity as the accused is required to know two
things: the nature and quality of the act, and that the act was wrong. This rule
has been criticized for its ambiguity. It was debated whether the word "wrong"
referred to moral or legal wrong. The importance of the distinction was
illustrated by Stephen as follows: A kills B knowing that he is killing B and it
[19]

is illegal to kill B but under an insane delusion that God has commanded him
to kill B to obtain the salvation of the human race. A's act is a crime if the word
"wrong" means illegal but it is not a crime if the word "wrong" means morally
wrong. The word "know" was also assailed as it referred solely to intellectual
reason and excluded affective or emotional knowledge. It was pointed out that
the accused may know in his mind what he is doing but may have no grasp of
the effect or consequences of his actions. MNaghten was condemned as
[20]

based on an obsolete and misleading concept of the nature of insanity as

insanity does not only affect the intellectual faculties but also affects the whole
personality of the patient, including his will and emotions. It was argued that
reason is only one of the elements of a personality and does not solely
determine man's conduct. kirsten
[21]

Subsequently, M'Naghten was refined by the "irresistible impulse"

test which means that "assuming defendant's knowledge of the nature and
quality of his act and knowledge that the act is wrong, if, by reason of disease
of the mind, defendant has been deprived of or lost the power of his will which
would enable him to prevent himself from doing the act, then he cannot be
found guilty." Thus, even if the accused knew that what he was doing was
wrong, he would be acquitted by reason of insanity if his mental illness kept
him from controlling his conduct or resisting the impulse to commit the crime.
This rule rests on the assumption that there are mental illnesses that impair
volition or self-control, even while there is cognition or knowledge of what is
right and wrong. This test was likewise criticized on the following grounds:
[22]

(1) the "impulse" requirement is too restrictive as it covers only impulsive acts;
(2) the "irresistible" requirement is also restrictive as it requires absolute
impairment of the freedom of the will which cases are very rare; (3) it will not
serve the purpose of criminal law to deter criminals as the will to resist
commission of the crime will not be encouraged, and; (4) it is difficult to prove
whether the act was the result of an insane, irresistible impulse. [23]
Then came the Durham "product" test in 1954 which postulated that "an
accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act was the product of
mental disease or defect." Critics of this test argued that it gave too much
[24]

protection to the accused. It placed the prosecution in a difficult position of

proving accused's sanity beyond reasonable doubt as a mere testimony of a
psychiatrist that accused's act was the result of a mental disease leaves the
judge with no choice but to accept it as a fact. The case thus becomes
completely dependent on the testimonies of experts. [25]

Then came the ALI "substantial capacity" test, integrated by the American
Law Institute (ALI) in its Model Penal Code Test, which improved on
the M'Naghten and irresistible impulse tests. The new rule stated that a
person is not responsible for his criminal act if, as a result of the mental
disease or defect, he lacks substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of
his act or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law. Still, this test
[26]

has been criticized for its use of ambiguous words like "substantial capacity"
and "appreciate" as there would be differences in expert testimonies whether
the accused's degree of awareness was sufficient. Objections were also
[27]

made to the exclusion of psychopaths or persons whose abnormalities are

manifested only by repeated criminal conduct. Critics observed that
psychopaths cannot be deterred and thus undeserving of punishment. barth [28]

In 1984, however, the U.S. Congress repudiated this test in favor of

the M'Naghten style statutory formulation. It enacted the Comprehensive
Crime Control Act which made theappreciation test the law applicable in all
federal courts. The test is similar to M'Naghten as it relies on the cognitive
test. The accused is not required to prove lack of control as in the ALI test.
The appreciation test shifted the burden of proof to the defense, limited the
scope of expert testimony, eliminated the defense of diminished capacity and
provided for commitment of accused found to be insane. [29]

In the Philippines, the courts have established a more stringent criterion for
insanity to be exempting as it is required that there must be a complete
deprivation of intelligence in committing the act, i.e., the accused
is deprived of reason; he acted without the least discernment because
there is a complete absence of the power to discern, or that there is atotal
deprivation of the will. Mere abnormality of the mental faculties will not
exclude imputability. [30]

The issue of insanity is a question of fact for insanity is a condition of the

mind, not susceptible of the usual means of proof. As no man can know what
is going on in the mind of another, the state or condition of a person's mind
can only be measured and judged by his behavior. Establishing the insanity of
an accused requires opinion testimony which may be given by a witness who
is intimately acquainted with the accused, by a witness who has rational basis
to conclude that the accused was insane based on the witness' own
perception of the accused, or by a witness who is qualified as an expert, such
as a psychiatrist. The testimony or proof of the accused's insanity must
[31]

relate to the time preceding or coetaneous with the commission of the

offense with which he is charged. Jksm[32]

In the case at bar, the appellant was diagnosed to be suffering

from schizophrenia when he was committed to the NCMH months after he
killed his wife. Medical books describe schizophrenia as a chronic mental
disorder characterized by inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality
and often accompanied by hallucinations and delusions. Formerly
calleddementia pracecox, it is the most common form of
psychosis. Symptomatically, schizophrenic reactions are recognizable
[33]

through odd and bizarre behavior apparent in aloofness or periods of

impulsive destructiveness and immature and exaggerated emotionality, often
ambivalently directed. The interpersonal perceptions are distorted in the more
serious states by delusions and hallucinations. In the most disorganized form
of schizophrenic living, withdrawal into a fantasy life takes place and is
associated with serious thought disorder and profound habit deterioration in
which the usual social customs are disregarded. During the initial stage, the
[34]

common early symptom is aloofness, a withdrawal behind barriers of

loneliness, hopelessness, hatred and fear. Frequently, the patient would seem
preoccupied and dreamy and may appear "faraway." He does not empathize
with the feelings of others and manifests little concern about the realities of life
situations. The schizophrenic suffers from a feeling of rejection and an
intolerable lack of self-respect. He withdraws from emotional involvement with
other people to protect himself from painful relationships. There is
shallowness of affect, a paucity of emotional responsiveness and a loss of
spontaneity. Frequently, he becomes neglectful of personal care and
cleanliness. A variety of subjective experiences, associated with or
[35]

influenced by mounting anxiety and fears precede the earliest behavioral

changes and oddities. He becomes aware of increasing tension and confusion
and becomes distracted in conversation manifested by his inability to maintain
a train of thought in his conversations. Outwardly, this will be noticed as
blocks or breaks in conversations. The schizophrenic may not speak or
respond appropriately to his companions. He may look fixedly away, or he
may appear to stare, as he does not regularly blink his eyes in his attempt to
hold his attention. [36]
None of the witnesses presented by the appellant declared that he
exhibited any of the myriad symptoms associated with schizophrenia
immediately before or simultaneous with the stabbing incident. To be
sure, the record is bereft of even a single account of abnormal or bizarre
behavior on the part of the appellant prior to that fateful day. Although Dr.
Tibayan opined that there is a high possibility that the appellant was already
suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the stabbing, he also declared
that schizophrenics have lucid intervals during which they are capable of
distinguishing right from wrong. Hence the importance of adducing proof
[37]

to show that the appellant was not in his lucid interval at the time he
committed the offense. Although the appellant was diagnosed with
schizophrenia a few months after the stabbing incident, the evidence of
insanity after the fact of commission of the offense may be accorded weight
only if there is also proof of abnormal behavior immediately before or
simultaneous to the commission of the crime. Evidence on the alleged
insanity must refer to the time preceding the act under prosecution or to the
very moment of its execution. Chiefx
[38]

In the case at bar, we find the evidence adduced by the defense insufficient to
establish his claim of insanity at the time he killed his wife. There is a dearth of
evidence on record to show that the appellant was completely of unsound
mind prior to or coetaneous with the commission of the crime. The
arguments advanced by the appellant to prove his insanity are speculative
and non-sequitur. For one, his claim that he has absolutely no recollection of
the stabbing incident amounts to a mere general denial that can be made with
facility. The fact that Avelina and her nephew were frightened at the sight of
the appellant holding a bolo after he killed his wife does not, by any stretch of
imagination, prove that the appellant has lost his grip on reality on that
occasion. Neither is the appellant's seemingly non-repentant attitude
immediately after he stabbed his wife an indicium of his alleged insanity. Even
criminals of stable mental condition take this non-remorseful stance. Similarly,
that the appellant and his wife were never seen quarreling prior to that fateful
day does not by itself prove the appellant's unstable mental condition. Neither
can it be said that jealousy is not a sufficient reason to kill a pregnant spouse.
Our jurisprudence is replete with cases where lives had been terminated for
the flimsiest reason.

The appellant attributes his loss of sanity to the fact that he lost his business
and became totally dependent on his mother-in-law for support. We find this,
however, purely speculative andunsupported by record. To be sure, there
was no showing of any odd or bizarre behavior on the part of the
appellant after he lost his fortune and prior to his commission of the
crimethat may be symptomatic of his mental illness. In fact, the appellant's
mother-in-law declared that during the time that she knew the appellant and
while he lived in her house, she did not notice anything irregular or
abnormal in the appellant's behavior that could have suggested that he
was suffering from any mental illness.

An accused invoking the insanity defense pleads not guilty by reason thereof.
He admits committing the crime but claims that he is not guilty because he
was insane at the time of its commission. Hence, the accused is tried on the
issue of sanity alone and if found to be sane, a judgment of conviction is
rendered without any trial on the issue of guilt as hehad already
admitted committing the crime. As the appellant, in the case at bar, failed
[39]

to establish by convincing evidence his alleged insanity at the time he killed

his wife, we are constrained to affirm his conviction.

IN VIEW WHEREOF, the Decision of the trial court convicting the appellant of
the crime of parricide is AFFIRMED in toto.

SO ORDERED. PUNOJ

Davide, Jr., C.J., (Chairman), Kapunan, Pardo, and Ynares-Santiago,

JJ., concur.