Case Digest: US vs Ballena, G.R. No. L-6294

US vs Ballena, G.R. No. L-6294, February 10, 1911

Subject: Basic Legal Ethics

FACTS

Leoncio Ballena, a provincial fiscal in Masbate, was charged with crime of subordination of perjury. The case stemmed from the testimony of Ana Ramirez, who was called as a witness in a homicide case against Ciriaco Pellejera. Ramirez testified that her husband died of fever and that she observed no contusions or other injuries on his body. However, it was later revealed that Ramirez had previously testified under oath that her husband had been beaten to death by Pellejera.

In the trial of perjury case against Ana, Estefania Barruga, mother of the defendant Ana, was a witness for the defendant, and at the instigation of one Leoncio Ballena she testified that the fiscal, Señor Bailon, at the time he was in Dimasalang making the investigation into the cause of the death of Ana's husband, attempted to rape her daughter Ana, and asked for the hand of the girl in marriage, but she did not desire to accept this proposition of the fiscal because he was a married man.

From there, the fiscal filed an information in the CFI of Masbate against the said Leoncio Ballena, charging him with the crime of subornation of perjury. After trial, the defendant was found guilty.  From this judgment, the defendant appealed and insists that the testimony by given by Estefania Barruga in that perjury case was immaterial to the issues involved therein. If this contention be true, the defendant is not guilty.

ISSUE

Whether or not the testimony of Barruga material to the issues involved in that criminal case against her daughter for perjury.

RULING

Yes, it is material.

Under the law, the crime of perjury is committed by any person who shall knowingly make untruthful statements or make an affidavit, upon any material matter and required by law.

In this case, the defendant strongly insisted that witness Barruga testifying that the fiscal committed those acts would be the only way to save her daughter from imprisonment. Materiality is an essential element in the crime of perjury. It, therefore, necessarily follows that materiality is likewise an indispensable requisite in the crime of subornation of perjury, as the latter is derived from the former. Looking into materiality of the testimonies made by the witnesses and circumstances surrounding the criminal case against Pellejera, the perjury case against Ana, and the current subordination case against Ballena, SC held that defendant Ballena, not only knowingly and willfully induced this witness to swear falsely, but he did so maliciously, as it appears from the record that he was an enemy of the fiscal at that time, the fiscal having prosecuted him previous to this trial. Hence, SC affirmed Ballena's conviction of subordination of perjury.