Republic of the Philippines

Court of Appeals
Manila

FORMER SPECIAL TWELFTH DIVISION

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, CA-G.R. CR HC No. 09067

Plaintiff-Appellee,
Members:

- versus - Bruselas, Jr., Chairman

Perez, P. A.,1 and
Santos, JJ.:

RONALD CRUZ y MERCADO, Promulgated:

Accused-Appellant.
November 27, 2018

x==============================================x

RESOLUTION

Santos, J.:

This treats the Motion for Reconsideration2 filed by accused-

appellant Ronald Mercado Cruz on 26 July 2018, which assails the
Court's 28 June 2018 Decision.3 In that Decision, the Court
denied the appeal for lack of merit but modified the Regional
Trial Court's Decision dated 9 December 2016 by adjusting the
imposable penalty for each count of Homicide to eight (8) years of
prision mayor as minimum to fourteen (14) years and eight (8)
months of reclusion temporal as maximum. The Solicitor General
filed a Comment4 to the Motion for Reconsideration on 7 September
2018.

1 Acting Senior Member per Office Order No. 285-18-RFB dated June 14, 2018.
2 Rollo, pp. 222-231.
3 Id., at 172-205.
4 Id., at 240-248.
 CA-G.R. CR HC No. 09067
Resolution
Page 2

Accused-appellant's sole contention in his Motion for

Reconsideration is the credibility of the eyewitness Paulo Enzee
Venturina (Paulo) and the truthfulness of his testimony,
specifically in identifying accused-appellant as the perpetrator of
the crime. Accused-appellant insists that Paulo was not present at
the time of the commission of the crime and that his testimony
was coached by the prosecution.5 However, these arguments were
already previously raised by accused-appellant and have been
extensively ruled upon and disposed of by the Court in the
assailed Decision. Since no new matters were raised by accused-
appellant in his Motion for Reconsideration, this Court finds no
meritorious grounds to warrant a reconsideration or modification
of its Decision.

WHEREFORE, the Motion for Reconsideration is hereby

DENIED for lack of merit.

SO ORDERED.

RAFAEL ANTONIO M. SANTOS

Associate Justice

5 Id., at 222-223.
 CA-G.R. CR HC No. 09067
Resolution
Page 3

WE CONCUR:

APOLINARIO D. BRUSELAS, JR.

Associate Justice

PABLITO A. PEREZ
Associate Justice

/SCU