THIRD DIVISION
[G.R. No. 95523. March 26, 1998]
REYNALDO GONZALES y RIVERA, petitioner
vs. HONORABLE COURT OF APPEALS and PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, respondents.
R E S O L U T I O N
ROMERO, J.:
On October 28,
1988, petitioner Reynaldo Gonzales y Rivera was convicted for illegal
possession of firearm, viz.:
“WHEREFORE, premises considered,
for failure of the prosecution to prove the guilt of Reynaldo Gonzales beyond
reasonable doubt of the charge for Attempted Homicide, he is hereby acquitted
of the crime charged.
With respect to the charged of
illegal Possession of Firearms, the Court finds the accused guilty beyond
reasonable doubt and hereby sentences him to a penalty ranging from 17 years, 4
months, 1 day to 18 years, 8 months of Reclusion Temporal, without
pronouncement as to costs.”
The conviction
was affirmed by the Court of Appeals in a decision dated July 12, 1990. On November 13, 1990 petitioner filed a
petition for review on certiorari seeking the reversal of the Court of
Appeals’ decision.
While the case
was still pending, Republic Act 8294 was enacted lowering the penalty for
illegal possession of firearm. Thus, in
our decision dated August 18, 1997 while affirming petitioner’s conviction, we
modified the imposable penalty pursuant to the new law, the dispositive portion
of the decision reads:
“WHEREFORE, the decision of the
Court of Appeals sustaining petitioner’s conviction by the lower court of the
crime of simple illegal possession of firearm is AFFIRMED, with the
MODIFICATION that the penalty is reduced to ‘four (4) years and two (2) months,
as minimum, to six (6) years, as maximum.”
Since the petitioner has already
served nine (9) years, nine (9) months and twenty-three (23) days, which is
well beyond the maximum principal penalty imposed for his offense, as well as
the subsidiary penalty for the unpaid fine, he is hereby ordered RELEASED
immediately, unless he is being held for some other lawful cause.
SO ORDERED.”
It must be noted
that in determining the preventive detention of the petitioner, we computed the
total period from the time the trial court convicted the petitioner which was
on October 28, 1988 to the date of promulgation of our decision on August 18,
1997.
However, on September
10, 1997, Action Officer Homobono R. Lachica, Jr. informed this Court that
under the Bureau of Corrections’ records, which were not attached to the
records of this case, petitioner has only one served one (1) month and twelve
(12) days of preventive suspension. He
explained that upon the promulgation of petitioner’s conviction and the
forfeiture of his bail bond, petitioner could no longer be located until his
arrest on September 16, 1993. Moreover,
it was only July 4, 1997 that petitioner was committed to the Bureau of
Corrections.
ACCORDINGLY, we resolved to MODIFY the
dispositive portion of the decision, viz.:
“WHEREFORE, the decision of the
Court of Appeals sustaining petitioner’s conviction by the lower court of
simple illegal possession of firearm is AFFIRMED, with the MODIFICATION that
the penalty is reduced to four (4) years and two (2) months, as minimum, to six
(6) years, as maximum.”
Since it appears
that petitioner has not yet fully served the indeterminate penalty imposed
above for his offense, as well as the subsidiary penalty for the unpaid fine,
the order for his immediate release dated August 27, 1997 is hereby RECALLED
SO ORDERED.
Narvasa,C.J
(Chairman), Kapunan and
Purisima, JJ., concur.