Licyayo v. People
G.R. No. 169425, March 04, 2008

Facts: 

Licyayo was charged with homicide. The Information, however, did not specifically mention Article 249 of the Revised Penal Code as the law which he allegedly violated and for which he was charged. According to Licyayo, the information should have been more explicit by stating that he is being indicted for homicide as defined and penalized under Article 249 of the Revised Penal Code. He argues that the specification in the information of the law violated is necessary to enable him to adequately prepare for his defense, and that to convict him under such defective information would violate his constitutional and statutory right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him.


Issue: 

Whether the information was defective for failure to state the specific provision of the law violated.


Held: 

"The fact that the information does not specifically mention Article 249 of the Revised Penal Code as the law which defines and penalizes homicide, does not make it defective. There is nothing in the [Rules of Court] which specifically requires that the information must state the particular law under which the accused is charged in order for it to be considered sufficient and valid. What the Rules merely require, among other things, is that the information must designate the offense charged and aver the acts constituting it, which in this case, were obviously done. People v. Gatchalian categorically stated that there is no law which requires that in order that an accused may be convicted, the specific provision which penalizes the act charged be mentioned in the information. 

Besides, it should be stressed that the character of the crime is determined neither by the caption or preamble of the information nor by the specification of the provision of law alleged to have been violated, they being conclusions of law, but by the recital of the ultimate facts and circumstances in the information. The sufficiency of an information is not negated by an incomplete or defective designation of the crime in the caption or other parts of the information but by the narration of facts and circumstances which adequately depicts a crime and sufficiently apprises the accused of the nature and cause of the accusation against him.

Although the information herein does not specifically mention Article 249 of the Revised Penal Code as the law which defines and penalizes homicide, it, nonetheless, narrates that petitioner stabbed Rufino with a bladed weapon during the incident which caused the latter’s death. The foregoing allegation unmistakably refers to homicide under Article 249 of the Revised Penal Code which is the unlawful killing of any person without any attendant circumstance that will qualify it as murder, parricide or infanticide."