Voluntary surrender MUST be spontaneous, unconditional

For voluntary surrender to be appreciated as a mitigating circumstance, it is necessary that the same be spontaneous and unconditional. These conditions are absent in the circumstances attendant to appellant's surrender. Appellant claims to have voluntarily given himself up to the Barangay Captain of Dalahican, Lucena City. The records reveal however that appellant never surrendered voluntarily, but was in fact arrested by Policeman Jaime Bagsik of Rizal, Laguna on August 8, 1991, nine months after the commission of the crime. From this fact, no inference can be made that he either acknowledged his guilt or wished to save the authorities the trouble and expense of his arrest. [G.R. No. 114971. November 19, 1996]