Hipolito Tondo, Eduardo Parallon and Rufo Elnas were charged with  the crime of robbery with  homicide in the Court of First Instance of  Zamboanga.   Upon arraignment, they entered a plea of not guilty.  After trial the Court found Hipolito Tondo and Eduardo Parallon guilty as charged and sentenced each of

* * * them to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua; to indemnify the heirs of the deceased, Ting Boon Tee, in the sum of P6,000.00; to return the cash and stolen articles or in the alternative to pay its value in the total sum of P1,600.00; with the accessory penalties prescribed by law and to pay two thirds (2/3)  of the costs of these proceedings.  (Crim. case No. 1794.)

Rufo Elnas was acquitted for insufficiency of evidence to support  his  conviction.

The convicted defendants have appealed.

At about 5:55 o'clock in the morning of 21 August 1953 a telephone report was received at  the headquarters of the Zamboanga City Police  Department  to the effect that the Chinese owner of a sari-sari store  at San Jose Interior, Zamboanga City, had  failed to answer the calls of a bread delivery man to open  his store to get  the bread to be sold for the day.  Detectives Pedro Francisco and Leonardo Eijansantos and plainsclothesman Enrique Manuel repaired to  the  place.  Upon arrival at the store they found the two front doors locked (Exhibits A-2 and A-3)  and the side door closed  but  not, locked  (Exhibit A-l).  They opened the unlocked door and  entered the store.  Inside the store, they found merchandise and articles like salmon and sardines cans and candles scattered on  the  floor and the tables and drawers in disarray. In the hall leading to the kitchen they found a blanket and a mat.   When they lifted them they found the body of a dead man. Ting Kim Pong,  who  arrived at  the scene, identified the dead man as his father Ting Boon Tee.  The police officers called up their chief, the chief of the secret  service, the medical health officer and a photographer.  The photographer took pictures of the cadaver in the very position it was  found (Exhibits B & C)  and in  another showing the wound inflicted (Exhibit  D). Thereafter the body was transferred to the morgue where Dr. Filomeno Pecson, medical health officer, performed an autopsy.  Dr. Pecson found a wound on the left  chest penetrating  the heart two inches deep, which was fatal (Exhibits D  & D-l).

The police officers continued  the investigation of the crime in a nearby bijon (noodle) factory owned by Ong Tao where the deceased was last seen alive in the evening of the previous day and there they saw a white underwear with yellow stains hanging on a bamboo clothesline at the back of the factory (Exhibits E & E-1). Asked to whom the underwear  belonged, no one among the ten  laborers working in the factory owned it.  Upon further investigation, they found in the trunk  of  Hipolito Tondo a sharkskin pants with red stains on it  (Exhibits O, 0-1, 0-2 & 0-5).  Hipolito Tondo admitted ownership  of the pants. The ten laborers working in the factory, including Eduardo Parallon and Hipolito  Tondo,  were brought to  the police headquarters and the underwear (Exhibit  E)  and  the sharkskin pants (Exhibit 0) to Justino Ganda, bacteriologist and  chemist of the Zamboanga General Hospital, for chemical  test to  determine whether the stains were of human blood.  At the  police headquarters Eduardo Parallon broke down and admitted ownership of the underwear, and later on confessed that he was with Hipolito Tondo in the evening of 20 August 1953 when the latter killed Ting Boon Tee  for the purpose of robbing him (Exhibits L & L-l),  Hipolito Tondo also confessed  that he killed the victim for the purpose of robbing him (Exhibits M, M-l & M-2).  Rufo Elnas signed  an affidavit declaring that although he was with Eduardo Parallon and Hipolito Tondo in the evening of 20 August 1953 when Ting Boon Tee was  killed, he was not inside the store at the time of the incident (Exhibits N & N-l).  The weapon used in killing the victim, a dagger  (Exhibit P), was recovered from  Marcos Parallon, brother of Eduardo,  and taken to Justino Canda  for  chemical  examination.

In the afternoon  of 21 August, the trio were  brought to the scene of the crime,  and in the presence of police authorities reenacted the way the crime  was committed. Photographs of the various stages of the crime were taken (Exhibits G, H, I & J).   A sketch of the scene, the positions  taken  by each  and every one  of  them, and  the trail traversed by them in coming to and from the store, were  made by detective  Daniel Zamora  (Exhibit  F).

The result of the chemical examination  of the stains in the underwear owned  by Eduardo Parallon (Exhibits E &  E-l), the sharkskin pants owned  by Hipolito Tondo (Exhibits  O, 0-1, 0-2 & 0-3)  and  the dagger (Exhibit P)  was positive for human blood (Exhibits T & U).

At  the trial the  appellants  repudiated  their respective sworn statements  where they admitted  the commission of the crime, and claimed that they  were maltreated  and forced by  the police authorities to sign the written  confessions prepared by  them for their  signature  (Exhibits L,  L-l, M,  M-l  & M-2).   The repudiation by them of their  sworn confessions  is  not sufficient to  overcome the certification  of Municipal  Judge Edmundo S. Piñga, before whom they appeared and swore to the truth of the contents of  the affidavits, typewritten at the foot of the sworn statement  of Eduardo Parallon, as follows:

This is to certify that the declarant's identity  has been duly verified; that when he was examined before this Court of the contents of  this  affidavit, he voluntarily declared in Visayan  dialect; that he  voluntarily declared  before  the investigating officer  and who were not present in  Court when declarant was examined before me; that he has never been forced to declare by the officers concerned, and that he  was not promised of any remuneration  to  give his testimony.  *  * *  (Exhibit L-l)

and of Hipolito  Tondo, as follows:

This is to certify that declarant Hipolito Tondo has been duly verified; that  upon examination  of  the contents of this affidavit before this  Court, declarant declared in Visayan which was interpreted by the undersigned; that what he  declared in this affidavit according to declarant are all the truth and nothing but the  truth that the one  who investigated  him was not found in Court  when examined of the contents Hereof, * *  *. (Exhibit M-2)

which the Municipal Judge reaffirmed at the trial of the case when he took the witness stand.  The fact that the appellants did not repudiate  their respective  confessions and inform the Municipal Judge that they were maltreated and forced to sign the prepared statements by the police authorities,  when  they appeared before him,  shows that the confessions were voluntary.  Their  respective confessions were  corroborated by  the  result of the chemical examination  of the stains in the underwear  owned  by Eduardo Parallon, the sharkskin pants owned  by Hipolito Tondo  and  the dagger,  all of which  were positive for human blood.

The appellants  assail  the expert testimony of  Justino Canda who submitted the report on his test (Exhibits T & U) and testified that the stains found in the underwear of Eduardo Parallon, the sharkskin pants of Hipolito Tondo and the dagger used in killing the victim  were of human blood, claiming that the  "Precipitin Test"  was the proper one  and that the "Teichman's Test,"  the one used  by him, Was not conclusive.  The fact that the witness had been a bacteriologist and chemist and connected with the Zamboanga General Hospital in that capacity for 40 years; and that he had varied experience in the use of the  "Teichman's Test" to determine the presence of human blood, is sufficient  to  qualify him  as an  expert upon whose opinion the  Court may rely. Moreover, this part of the evidence for the prosecution  is merely corroborative and is not the only evidence relied upon by the Court in arriving at the conclusion it did.

The evidence for the prosecution does not establish that robbery was consummated but it establishes that robbery was  attempted by the appellants.  The crime committed falls under  the provisions  of article 297  of the Revised Penal Code,  which  provides  that  

When by reason or  on occasion of an attempted  or frustrated robbery a homicide is committed, the person guilty of such offenses shall be punished by reclusion temporal in its maximum  period to reclusion perpetua, unless the homicide committed  shall deserve a higher penalty under the provisions of this Code.

As the aggravating circumstances of dwelling and nighttime were present in the  commission of  the crime, the penalty should be imposed  in its maximum period, which is reclusion perpetua.

With the pronouncement that the  crime committed is that provided  and punished in article 297  of  the  Revised Penal Code and the  striking out  of that  part of the judgment appealed from ordering restitution  of the  cash and stolen articles or in the alternative  payment of its value in the total sum of P1,600,  because there is no satisfactory evidence that the appellants had taken  money "or goods from their victim's  store, the judgment appealed from is affirmed, with the proportionate costs against the appellants.

Paras, C. J., Bengzon,  Montemayor, Bautista  Angelo, Labrador, Concepcion, Endencia, and Barrerra, JJ.,  concur.