Back

People of the Philippines Vs. Wilfredoo Cawaling

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus WILFREDO CAWALING, Accused-Appeellant.

G.R. No. 157147 | 2009-04-17

DECISION


NACHURA, J.:

We are confronted with conflicting accounts of the commission of a crime, a reverse whodunit[1] rivaling the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie, in this review of the Court of Appeals' (CA's) conviction of accused Wilfredo Cawaling for murder and imposing on him the penalty of reclusion perpetua.[2] However, unlike Agatha Christie, we are guided by the test of moral certainty in ascertaining the guilt of the accused.

This legal poser arose because, after the prosecution presented an eyewitness to the crime pointing to Cawaling as the perpetrator thereof, the defense offered the testimony of a person, initially...