On August 21, 1909, the defendants and appellants, Lorenzo Sison,  Francisco Billado,  and  Hilarion  de  la  Cruz, were each sentenced by the Hon. Albert  E. McCabe, judge of the Court of First Instance for the Tenth Judicial District, sitting in Bacolod, Occidental Negros, to imprisonment for seventeen  years and four months, and  to indemnify, jointly and severally, the heirs of Santiago Bolanon in the sum of P1,000 and Leona Bolanon in the sum of P50, together with the costs, for the crime of homicide.

Although the three defendants were joined in the information, Francisco Billado, owing to his absence at the time the case was called for trial, was tried and sentenced separately, his sentence being, however, in the  precise terms of the sentence against the other defendants.

Early in the evening of Friday, February 26, 1909, the deceased, Santiago Bolanon, an elderly man, residing at a place known as Sandayon,  situated at a distance  of some three hours' walk from the town  of Sagay, Occidental Negros,  was assaulted by three  men armed with  bolos while near the foot of the stairs of his house, from which he had just descended.  His  daughter,  Leona Bolanon, hearing the disturbance,  looked  out  of  the window and saw the assault, whereupon she armed herself with a bolo and attacked the assailants, but not until they had fatally wounded her father,  who remained  unconscious  until he died  early the next morning from the effects  of his wounds.

At the time of the assault the only persons at home besides the deceased were his daughter, Leona, and her mother, but the mother  did not appear as a witness in any of the proceedings against the defendants on account, it is claimed, of her illness.  The identification of the defendants as the assailants of the deceased  rests solely upon the  testimony of his daughter, Leona Bolanon.

The defendants do not deny the circumstances  which resulted  in the death  of  Santiago Bolanon, but claim to have no knowledge of the  deed, save what  they learned  from others,  and  attempted to account for their several whereabouts at the time  of the occurrence in question.  Thus it is apparent that the case  hinges  upon the weight which should be given the  testimony of the witness Leona Bolanon, with all the surrounding circumstances, and  the evidence in support of the alibi set up by each of the defendants.

Leona Bolanon, 18 years  of age, having identified each of the defendants as they sat in the court room, testified as follows:

"On Friday afternoon about 6  o'clock my father  went downstairs from the  house.  Hearing a noise downstairs, I looked out of the window and saw my father being tied up by these men.  After they had finished tying  him, they brought him upstairs  into the house, and while doing so Francisco and Lorenzo were laying  the bolo on my father's shoulder.  When they arrived at  the  door of our house, Francisco delivered a  blow on my  father's head with the bolo, striking him about the  middle part of the right side of the  forehead, over the right  eye.  When my father turned  his head around, Lorenzo then  struck him a  blow in the center of the forehead with a sharp fighting  bolo. When I saw my father fall down after he had been struck in the  middle of the forehead,  I ran to the room and got a bolo.  When I came out I was  met by Lorenzo, and he struck  me with his bolo, and I parried the blow and was struck  on my finger.  After he had struck  me with his fighting" bolo, I returned the blow with my  bolo, and he striking at me  with the bolo he had, I parried  the blow, both still  striking, and the blade of  his  bolo  separated from the handle, and it was then that the hand-guard and the ring fell  to the ground.  After the blade of his bolo had separated from the handle  and he  had seen  that fact, he picked  up the  blade of  his bolo and jumped  from the house, passing through the doorway.  Hilarion was standing on  one of the steps of  the stairway; he did  not enter the room.  All  three  were armed.  After they jumped down from the  house they ran  away.  The next morning I found that the door of our corral (toril), where the three carabaos were, had been  opened.  Previous to the  occurrence the corral  had been closed.

"It cost me P50 to cure the  wound which I received on my finger, and I can not now [six months after the occurrence] bend the finger.  [Witness shows scar on knuckle of third finger of left hand.]

"At the time  the wounds were inflicted on my fathers' head he was somewhat inside the doorway and was tied. They tied my father when they were downstairs.  Hilarion helped.   When they caught my father  I begged them not to kill him; that if they wanted to ask anything, to ask and we would give it to them, and then Lorenzo replied: 'You keep still up  there.'  These were the only words that any of the assailants said.

"The  defendant Lorenzo  Sison is the manager  of the hacienda of Captain Juan  Sison, near  Sagay. Francisco also worked for Captain Juan.   I was acquainted  with the defendants Lorenzo Sison and Francisco Billado before this occurrence, but  Hilarion,  I was not  acquainted  with his name, but his features I know very well, and he is the person that was there with them.   *   *  *  On Sunday when we buried my father, and when I returned from the cemetery, I stopped at the store of Sanga, and sat down by the doorway of the store,  and Hilarion  was speaking in a low voice with  another  person,  and  I heard Hilarion say: 'Cabeza Tiago is dead,' and the other  person then replied to him: 'Has  he already died?' to which Hilarion replied: 'He  had just  a nervous shake and  died.'   This  conversation  was between  Hilarion and two Chinamen.   I alone heard the conversation."

On being shown  a  certain bolo in the possession of the prosecution and asked if it was the fighting bolo used by the defendant Sison on the night of the  attack, witness replied:

"It is  not the  bolo.  I saw this  bolo  on the person of Francisco,  because  he had  the  scabbard attached to his left side, and while  they were downstairs before they came up in  the house I had seen the bolos  that they had with them.  *  *   *  Lorenzo's fighting bolo  was similar, inasmuch  as it had the  same silver bands  on  the  scabbard, and that bolo of his had the guard and this ring which we have before us."

In  the Francisco  Billado record Leona indentified  the ring  and guard shown her  by the fiscal as the pieces that fell down during her encounter  with Lorenzo.   In answer to the question as to whether she saw them after her father's assailants left  she  replied: "They were underneath  the house - underneath the stairs."

Leona  further stated that after the assault her brother-in-law, Esteban Ugaban, arrived, but that when  he arrived these people were already far away from the house.  On being asked if she had any conversation with Esteban about the assault she replied:

"I  didn't say anything to him, except that, in the morning,  I told him to  go ahead to the town and report  the matter, and that I would follow,  together with my brother, after him, and  that on arriving  there I would give all the information regarding it."

On the trial of the defendant  Billado,  on being asked these questions, Leona gave the following  answers:

"Q. When Esteban arrived at the house and he found or discovered that your father had a large wound, did he not ask  you the  cause?  To which she replied: How could Esteban ask regarding what had happened  in the house, as we had all we could do to try to keep him (her father) from dying, as half of his  head was already broken?

"Q. As he had seen these three men that were fleeing at a  distance,  didn't he  ask  you  regarding  them when  he arrived  at the house? - A.  I stated before  that he had  no time to ask about what  had happened in  the house.  We had all we could do to assist my father, who was dying."

On the trial of the defendants Sison and De la Cruz, Esteban Ugaban, brother-in-law of Leona, as a witness for the prosecution, testified that he arrived at the house of his father-in-law about 6 o'clock and that as he was approaching the house he saw three men at a distance running away; that he did not recognize any of them, and that he was  acquainted with Lorenzo Sison.  This witness (Esteban) further testified that -

"The  next morning my mother-in-law told me to go to the town and report what happened to my father-in-law.  They desired  me to.report the matter, that he died  because  he was  wounded by blows inflicted upon him  with boJos, and they stated to me: 'Go ahead to the town and report this, and Roman and Leona will follow  afterwards and give the whole version of the affair.  *  *  *'  They were afraid that they would be blamed  for what happened in case that the time should expire for reporting the matter."

On the trial of the defendant Billado, Esteban testified that it was after sunset  when he arrived at his father-in-law's house, and that as he approached the  house the three men who were running away were distant about 15 brazas. Esteban saw the wounds on his father-in-law's head.  He remained all night in  his  father-in-law's house, assisting Leona in caring for  the  deceased.  On reaching town the next day, February 27, he simply reported to the justice of the peace that his father-in-law had died.  Being asked on cross-examination if he had not at the time filed a complaint before the said  justice  of the  peace, he admitted that he put his  cross to the complaint which  was  introduced in evidence as defendants' exhibit.  This complaint is signed by Esteban Ugaban, under date of February 27, and charges that the  crime  was  committed in the following manner by three unknown persons at 6 o'clock on the evening of February 26:

"They presented themselves  beneath  the  house of Santiago Bolanon,  father-in-law of complainant, and  while trying to open the corral beneath said house for the purpose of stealing the carabaos, Santiago appeared, whereupon they immediately  bound him, inflicting upon him  at the same time the  wounds from which he  died  at  4 o'clock this morning - also wounding his daughter, Leona, who came to the defense of her father."

Felix Gaspar  testified on behalf of the prosecution that the guard and ring referred to by the  witness Leona  Bolanon were of the same shape and form as a guard and ring constituting part of a  bob  belonging  to defendant Lorenzo Sison, claiming that Lorenzo on a certain Wednesday left the bolo to which the guard and ring belonged at his house, but came and took it away again on the same day.

Lorenzo Sison  on his own  behalf testified  that the bolo which the prosecution had  exhibited to  the witness Leona Bolanon, and which she admitted was similar to the bolo in the  possession of the person with whom she had  the encounter at  the time when she came to the rescue of  her father, was his bolo and that it was the only fighting bolo that he owned.

Although the possession of this bolo by the prosecution is not clearly accounted for, it is pretty certain from  the evidence that it was taken from the house of Lorenzo Sison, during his absence, by order of the municipal  president of Sagay.

It further appeared from the uncontradicted testimony of this defendant that he was a political opponent of Epifanio  Tupas, then president of Sagay, and  that  enmity existed between both  the president and the justice of the peace  on the one hand and this defendant on the other, by reason of some previous lawsuit, so that they were not on speaking terms.

Defendant Sison and several witnesses on his behalf testified that on Saturday morning, February 27, he left the town of Sagay in a boat for the town  of Barotac  Nuevo, in the Province of Uoilo, for the purpose of bringing his mother and sister to his home in  Sagay.  Being detained there  on  account  of  bad weather, he  did  not return for nearly a week, and upon his return immediately heard that a warrant was out for his arrest for complicity in the murder of the deceased, Santiago Bolanon, whereupon he at once repaired to the tribunal and surrendered himself.  Credible evidence of disinterested witnesses was also presented on behalf of this defendant to show that he engaged the boat for the purpose of going over to Barotac late in the afternoon of Friday, the day of the murder.

Each of the other defendants supported his alibi by evidence, in addition to his own testimony.  As this case must, in our opinion, be disposed of upon the evidence of the prosecution rather than that of the defense, we  do not deem it necessary to enter into the details of these defenses.

Leona Bolanon being the only witness for the prosecution who claims to identify the defendants as the perpetrators of the crime, the  commission of which is not questioned, we must determine whether or not the testimony of this witness is sufficiently credible to justify the court in convicting these defendants.  In analyzing the  testimony of this witness the point considered is not whether she saw certain persons assault her father, or whether in attempting to rescue her father she had an  encounter with one of his assailants and was  herself wounded.   These points are entirely credible. The  question is whether the assault upon the deceased and the encounter of his daughter with one of his assailants took place, as the daughter claims, in the house and under circumstances such as  would  enable her to recognize the assailants, or whether it took place on the ground near the house and in  the midst of such darkness that the daughter was  unable to identify the assailants.  The first extraordinary proposition  that  this  sole  witness  against these defendants sets forth is that these three men, two of whom, being tenants of the neighboring hacienda, were well known to herself and presumably to her father, should come to their house by daylight for the purpose of stealing their carabaos. Such a situation is not only extraordinary, but, generally speaking, inconsistent with human experience and with the motives that  actuate human beings.  Ordinarily strangers from an unknown locality would not attempt such a deed, much less neighbors who were acquainted with the persons and surroundings of the assailed party.  This circumstance alone is so altogether inexplicable as to arouse the gravest doubt as to the daughter's claim that the robbers came to their house at a time of day when it was so light she could identify them.  If it was dark when the assault upon  her father took place, then Leona, though she went to the rescue, would have had great difficulty in recognizing the offenders, unless they came up into  the house, where there doubtless was a light.  And, again, why should men caught in the act of stealing their neighbor's carabaos first bind such neighbor and then when he was helpless carry him  into the house and there deliberately murder him in  the presence of his wife and daughter ? There is no pretense that any enmity existed between the defendant and the deceased.  The defendant Sison positively testified that  the  deceased was one of  his good friends.  Leona was sure that the purpose that brought the robbers there was to steal their carabaos.   Then, if this be true, it is inconceivable why they should have tied their victim while they were downstairs and then carry him up into the house for the purpose of murdering him.   They knew that his daughter was there, because she had begged them to desist  their assault upon her father and one of them had told her to be quiet.  They also knew that they would be recognized by the daughter if they entered the sola.  According to  Leona's theory, the defendants left the sala after they had killed her father and seriously wounded her.  If it was their intention to rob these victims, then there was no reason  why they should have left at that time after their victims were practically helpless, and no other person had yet arrived.  It is more probable that when the daughter found that her  intercessions with her father's  assailants were ineffective,  she seized a bolo and ran  downstairs to rescue him and there  had an encounter with the assailants, receiving a  wound on her hand.  Not only does this  conform to the natural course of events, but it explains why  the ring and the guard of the bolo were found on  the ground near the house, or under  the stairway, the next morning. And, furthermore, before  retiring for the night the deceased went down to look after his carabaos; he did this at the precise time his assailants were attempting secretly to appropriate the animals, and, being caught in the act, they turned on him.  His daughter, hearing the disturbance, appealed to them to  release  him.  Finding her appeal  disregarded she went to his assistance.  The charge filed by  Esteban Ugaban before the justice of the peace on tihe morning after the assault strongly  corroborates the  theory that  both assaults, one upon the  deceased and the other upon his daughter, took  place outside the  house and in  the  dark.   The language of Esteban's complaint shows that instead  of being ignorant of the circumstances under which the deceased  met his death,  he was fully advised of all the  facts except the persons who committed the deed.   Not being at the  house at the time of the assault he could have ascertained these facts only from Leona.  It is so inherently improbable that Leona told him all of these circumstances and yet failed to  mention the fact  that  his  acquaintances, her acquaintances,  her father's acquaintances, their neighbors, the defendants, Sison and Billado, were the men who murdered the deceased.   If her testimony as to  the events that she cjaims occurred at the house are true,  then, of course,  she was sure  who  the murderers were.  Being sure she could not have refrained from imparting the information to her brother-in-law, along with the other facts  that  his  complaint shows  he knew. When Leona was asked to explain why she sent her brother-in-law to Sagay to report her father's cleath, without telling him all she now claims she then knew, she gives this extraordinary answer:

"I stated before that he  had no time to ask about what happened in the house.  We had all we could do to assist my father who was dying."

But it must be noted that her father died about 4 o'clock and Esteban did not start for Sagay until some time later. Esteban and Leona were together during the whole night and for some time  after the deceased died.  If she had known the assailants, it would have been the most natural thing in the  world  for  her to  have given this information to  her brother-in-law during this time.

That this  atrocious murder was  committed there is no question, but the sole testimony - that of Leona - upon which the judgment of the lower  court rests, as to the identification of the defendants, is so inherently improbable and inconsistent with human experience that it can not form the basis of a conviction in this case.

For these reasons  the judgment is reversed and  the defendants acquitted, with costs de oficio.

Arellano, C. J., Mapa, Carson, and Moreland, JJ., concur.