Artemio Garcia, Marcelino Tugade, Geronimo Buenaflor, Casimiro  Lopez,  Francisco Raquem,  Pastor Sison, Pedro Ballares, Marcelo Barreto and Jose Ruiz were charged in the Court of First Instance of Pangasinan. with the crime of double murder, in that,  conspiring together and taking advantage  of their superior  strength  and  of  nighttime, and in . connivance with Marcelo Barreto  who  was  at large, they  feloniously,  and in  an uninhabited place and with evident premeditation and treachery,  cut the necks of and killed Marciano Birog and Rafael Birog In  the course of the trial and upon motion filed by the prosecution, the  case  was dismissed as  against the defendants Marcelino Tugade, Geronimo Buenaflor and Francisco Raquem for insufficiency of evidence. . After trial the  court rendered  a decision  (1)  finding  the  defendants Pedro Ballares and Jose Ruiz guilty as principals and sentencing each of them to an indeterminate  penalty of not less than 10 years and 1 day of prision mayor and not more than 17  years and  4 months of rechistim temporal,  for  the murder  of Rafael  Birog, and to another indeterminate penalty of the  same duration, for the murder of Mariano Birog, with legal accessories; to  indemnify  jointly and severally  with the defendant  Artemio  Garcia  the  heirs of the deceased Rafael  Birog  in  the sum of P3,000 and the heirs of the deceased Mariano  Birog in another sum of P3,000; and to pay their proportionate shares of the costs; (2) finding the defendant Artemio Garcia guilty as accomplice and sentencing  him to an indeterminate penalty of not  less than  4 years,  2 months .and  1  day of pristfm mayor, for the murder of Rafael Birog,  and to another indeterminate penalty of the same  duration, for the murder of  Mariano Birog;  to  indemnify  jointly and  severally with the defendants Pedro  Ballares and Jose Rujz,  the heirs of the deceased Rafael Birog in the sum of F3,000 and the heirs  of the deceased Mariano  Birog in another sum of  P3,000;  and to  pay his  proportionate  share of the costs; and (3)  acquitting the  defendants Pastor Sison and Casimiro  Lopez for  insufficiency  of evidence.  The three convicted defendants have appealed.

As pointed out by the trial  court in the appealed decision, the evidence for the prosecution  in substance  has established the following facts: Before  January 17, 1949, in  view of the information about the loss  by Segundo Golen  of his six carabaos in the municipality of Alaminos, Pangasinan, the  municipal  mayor, Agapito  Braganza, caused an investigation to be made Suspicion fell  on Francisco Raquem who, however, denied having had any participation in the disappearance of said carabaos.  Mayor Braganza thereupon sought the aid of appellant Artemio Garcia, then an agent of the Philippine Constabulary, who on  January 18, 1949, together with Francisco Raquem, Marcelino Tugade and  Jose Ruiz, went to the house of Rafael Birog  situated  in  sitio Papaya, municipality of Mabini, Pangasinan, where they found Cecilia Cardenas and Aquilina  Birog (wife and daughter  respectively of Rafael Birog), Leon Bona and Gteronimo Buenaflor.  Appellant Garcia, with a revolver in hand, told Cecilia Cardenas that  Jie was going  to take along Leon Bona and Geronimo  Buenaflor, whereupon  appellant Garcia  and companions, with Leon Bona  and  Geronimo  Buenaflor, proceeded to the house of barrio lieutenant Casimiro Lopez, where appellant Garcia investigated Leon Bona.   Upon refusal by the latter to admit that Rafael and Mariano Birog  were the leaders  of the  cattle rustlers,  he was maltreated by appellant Garcia.  Returning to the  house of Rafael Birog, appellant Garcia (in company with Marcelino Tugade, Jose Ruiz, Francisco Raquem and Geronimo Buenaflor)  met Mariano Birog who was invited by appellant Garcia to the house of Pedro Ballares to eat pinipig cakes, leaving Tugade  and Buenaflor in  the house of Rafael  Birog. with instruction by  appellant  Garcia to wait for Rafael  Tugade and Buenaflor however left even before Rafael's  arrival. Tugade, Buenaflor and Mariano Birog  returned to the  house of Rafael Birog who was prevailed upon  by the latter's son  (Mariano Birog) to go^to  the house of Casimiro  Lopez,  where  Rafael was investigated by appellant Garcia.  After maltreating Rafael and  Mariano Birog,   appellant Garcia   ordered  Pedro Ballares,  Jose Ruiz and Marcelo Barreto  to take Rafael and Mariano somewhere for liquidation.  Since then these two were never seen or  heard  from.

The matter was reported by Cecilia Cardenas both to the local authorities and to the Philippine Constabulary in Manila.   Inspector Queruben Manipon of the Intelligence Division of the Philippine Constabulary was commissioned to handle  the case,  with  the aid of  agents  Francisco Sanchez and Hilarion Santos.   As  a result  of  their investigation,  appellants  Jose  Ruiz  and Pedro  Ballares admitted having committed the crime upon order of appellant Artemio Garcia.  Their admissions were reduced to writing  and accordingly contained  in  affidavits  (Exhs. "C"  to  "C-7" and  "D"  to "D-5" of appellant Ruiz,  and Exhs.  "A" to  "A-6" and  "B"  to "B-10"  of  appellant Ballares).  According to the  confessions,  appellant  Ruiz decapitated Mariano  Birog while  Rafael  Birog was decapitated by Marcelo Barreto; and during the ceremony appellant Pedro Ballares was watching with a carbine in hand.  At  first refusing to do so, appellants Jose  Ruiz and Pedro  Ballares led the authorities to Mount Dimalagan where they reenacted their crime.  At the place  indicated by said appellants, bones were found which, according to findings of the National  Bureau of Investigation, belonged to two  male persons.

The  first contention of the  appellants is that the prosecution had failed to prove the corpus delicti.  It  is thus alleged  that although the  Government  expert was  able to identify  two sets of bones and knits of hair as belonging to two male persons,  said expert  could not tell  with certainty whether the bones  and  hair  were those  of  a Filipino or a Japanese;  that there is uncontradicted  evidence that in the place  where said bones  and hair were found many Japanese stragglers died of  hunger  during the liberation; that the reenactment of the crime by appellants Ruiz and Ballares was involuntary, having been made merely  to  avoid maltreatment;  and  that the death of Rafael Birog and Mariano Birog was just inferred by the trial court  from their disappearance.

We cannot agree with appellants contention.  Corpus delicti means the fact or specific injury or loss sustained; and  in  murder the  fact of death is the  corpus  delicti (People vs. Batangan, 54 Phil, 834; People vs. Moros Ansang et ah, 93 Phil., 44 People vs. Marquez, 77 Phil., 83.) The  fact  that  Rafael  and  Mariano  Birog died,  is established  by  the extra-judicial confessions of appellants Jose Ruiz and  Pedro Ballares,  to the effect that  they liquidated the former on the night of January 18, 1949. The  confessions are supported  by the  finding  of  the bones and hair of two male persons at the exact place indicated  by said  appellants;  by the testimony of Leon Bona and  Francisco  Raquem,  to the  combined  effect that on January 18, 1949, the deceased father and  son (Rafael and Mariano Birog)  were  hogtied  and  gagged and  taken somewhere  by  appellants Ruiz  and Ballares and Marcelo Barreto upon order  of appellant Garcia, and that in the following  morning  they returned  without Rafael and Mariano and reported to appellant Garcia that the two had already been liquidated; and by the testimony of Cecilia Cardenas  and Aquilina Birog, to the effect that Rafael  and Mariano Birog had  disappeared and never returned to their home since January 18, 1949.  The allegation  that  many Japanese  died at  or about the place of the commission of the crime, is inconsistent with the finding of the bones of only  two male  persons.

It is next argued that  the confessions of appellants Jose Ruiz and  Pedro Ballares were  obtained by means of violence, and were the product of continuous maltreatment and  ceaseless questioning, said appellants having been in the  custody of the investigators  for  a month,  held incommunicado; that said appellants  had chosen to confess as a last  resort to escape further physical  tortures and hideous cruelties on the part of the investigators  and thereby to keep themselves alive; and that notwithstanding rigid  and exacting  cross-examination, said appellants testified in court flawlessly and maintained their innocence throughout.

This  argument  deserves  no merit.   In  the first place, the justices of the peace  before  whom  the  confessions were  sworn to, positively testified that they were  thumbmarked by affiants voluntarily and freely  and after their contents were read to each.   In the second place, no proof of actual  physical injury was presented by either appellant;  in the  third place, even  assuming the involuntary character  of  said  confessions,  the  finding  of  the bones, and hair  above  referred to  confirms  the admissions of guilt  and  renders the confessions admissible in evidence. In the case of. Bery vs. U. S.,2 Col:  186, it was held that "if the involuntary confessions  are confirmed on material points by  facts subsequently discovered in  its consequence, the whole confession should be received and admitted as evidence.  *  * * The  finding of the goods at the place indicated  not only tends to corroborate the declaration of the prisoner that they will  be found there  but also his declaration that he stole them and concealed them at that place, if he made this' statement."                   .

It  is also  insisted for the appellants that if the crime was committed  at a place in  Mount Dimalagan  late in the evening of January 18, 1949, as  charged in the information, and  in  view of the  distance between  said place and the  municipality of Mabini which according to  a competent witness cannot be covered in less  than 7 or 8  hours,  it was physically impossible for appellants Jose Ruiz  and  Pedro Ballares to have returned to Mabini early in  the morning  of January  19, 1949, as testified to by Leon Bona, and to have reported to Artemio Garcia that they  had already  liquidated  Rafael  and  Mariano Birog. It is  further alleged that the latter could not  have been killed on  January 18, 1949, because  mayor Braganza testified that he personally investigated Rafael and Mariano Birog in  the municipal building, and because the chief of police testified that on  January 19, 1949, appellant Garcia brought with him to  the municipal building  three men and the mayor ordered him  to investigate  one of them, Leon Bona.

With reference to the matter  of distance, it is well to remember that the  speed with  which persons travel varies with different individuals and depends upon attending circumstances, with the result that while it may take one person 7 or 8 hours to walk from Mount Dimalagan to the  municipality of Mabini, another may negotiate the same distance in a  much) lesser time.

There is no point in appellants' allegation that mayor Braganza personally investigated Rafael and Mariano Birog, because the testimony of said mayor contains no express reference to January 19, 1949, but merely intimated that the investigation took place some time in  January, 1949.  Furthermore, if appellant  Garcia in fact brought together Leon Bona, Rafael Birog  and Mariano  Birog on January 19,  there could be  no valid  reason why Leon Bona should  be separated from the Birogs and  why the first should be  investigated by  the chief  of police  and the latter two by the mayor.  At  any rate,  as  aptly observed by the Solicitor General, what is essential in  this case is not whether Rafael arid Mariano Birog were killed on  January 18, 1949  or  subsequently, but  whether they were actually murdered and the appellants are the authors of  the  crime.  It is needless to repeat that appellants Jose Ruiz  and Pedro Ballares had admitted their guilt in  their confessions  and referred  to  appellant Artemio Garcia as the one who ordered them to commit the crime; and the admissibility of said confessions has already been demonstrated hereinabove.  It may be added, however, that the facts recited in the confessions tally with the testimony  of the witnesses for  the  prosecution (Francisco Raquem, Cecilia Cardenas, Leon Bona and Aquilina Birog) as to the events and circumstances that led to  the commission of the crime in question..

What has been said sufficiently negatives  (1) the denial by  appellant  Artemio Garcia  that he ordered the liquidation of Rafael  and Mariano Birog, claiming that he  had merely investigated  and released them in the morning of January 19, 1949, when mayor Braganza found that there was no evidence against them;  and  (2)  the  defense  of alibi put up by appellants Jose Ruiz and  Pedro  Ballares. The latter two appellants  were  positively  identified  by prosecution witnesses  Leon Bona and Francisco Raquem as the ones who took  away Rafael and  Mariano Birog to the mountain, and said witnesses have admittedly no reason to lie.  Apart from the  incriminatory reference  to appellant Artemio Garcia contained in the confessions of appellants Jose Ruiz  and  Pedro  Ballares,  the  testimony  of Leon Bona to  the effect that appellants Ruiz and Ballares reported in the presence of appellant Garcia that the former had already liquidated the Birogs, and the testimony of Francisco Raquem  in the sense that he heard  appellant Garcia  say "It is better that  we  finish them,"  and that the  latter ordered  Pedro  Ballares, Jose Ruiz,  Marcelo Barreto, Rafael Birog and Mariano Birog to go  somewhere, clearly  show the criminal participation of appellant Garcia in  the  killing of Rafael  and Mariano Birog.

We agree with the  trial court in  convicting appellants Jose Ruiz and Pedro  Ballares as principals but, in  view of what has been  said, we  are constrained to  hold that appellant Artemio  Garcia should  also be  convicted  as principal.  We agree also with the trial court  in considering the mitigating circumstance of lack  of instruction, but said court erred in not  considering the aggravating circumstance that the crime was committed in an  uninhabited place.

It being understood, therefore,  that  each of  the  three appellants, Artemio Garcia, Jose Ruiz and Pedro Ballares, is sentenced to reclusim perpetua for each of the murders of Rafael Birog and Mariano Birog, the appealed decision is in all other respects  affirmed, with costs.

Bengzon, Padilla,  Reyes, A.,  Jugo, Bautista Angelo, Concepcion, Reyes, J. B. L.,  and Endencia,  JJ.,  concur.