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FACTS:
Mayor Leroy Brown of Basilan City and several detectives were
charged with murder for the killing of Yakan Awalin Tebag.
Mayor Brown ordered his men to arrest and detain Tebag. He
was also subjected to severe torture during the course of his
investigation held at a police substation which later resulted to
his death. The Mayor and his men then brought him to a nearby
isolated field to make it appear that Tebag had been killed during
an encounter.
ISSUE:
Was the offense committed in relation to their public office?
DECISION:
YES. The offense was committed in relation to their public office.
While public office is not an element of the crime of murder, the
offense charged in the amended information is intimately
connected with their respective offices and was perpetrated
while they were in the performance, though improper or
irregular, of their official functions. Indeed, they had no personal
motive to commit the crime and they would not have committed
it had they not held their aforesaid offices. The co-defendants of
Mayor Brown obeyed his instructions because he was their
superior officer as Mayor of Basilan City.