AS A GENERAL RULE, “[A] WITNESS CAN TESTIFY ONLY TO THE FACTS HE KNOWS
OF HIS PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE; THAT IS, WHICH ARE DERIVED FROM HIS OWN PERCEPTION.” x x x x x All other kinds of testimony are hearsay
and are inadmissible as evidence. The Rules of Court, however, provide several
exceptions to the general rule, and one of which is when the evidence is part
of res gestae.
The term res gestae has been defined as “those
circumstances which are the undesigned incidents of a particular litigated act
and which are admissible when illustrative of such act.” In a general way, res
gestae refers to the circumstances, facts, and declarations that grow out of
the main fact and serve to illustrate its character and are so spontaneous and
contemporaneous with the main fact as to exclude the idea of deliberation and
fabrication. The rule on res gestae encompasses
the exclamations and statements made by either the participants, victims, or
spectators to a crime immediately before, during, or immediately after the
commission of the crime when the circumstances are such that the statements
were made as a spontaneous reaction or utterance inspired by the excitement of
the occasion and there was no opportunity for the declarant to deliberate and
to fabricate a false statement. The test
of admissibility of evidence as a part of the res gestae is, therefore, whether
the act, declaration, or exclamation is so intimately interwoven or connected
with the principal fact or event that it characterizes as to be regarded as a
part of the transaction itself, and also whether it clearly negatives any
premeditation or purpose to manufacture testimony. (PEOPLE VS. FELICIANO, JR. [2014]).
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