Daily Serving of Legal Matters

"Be responsible.   Anything malicious post/s you have on your wall in FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, GOOGLE and the likes might implicate you in the crime of LIBEL." With the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the Philippines upholding the constitutionality of the provision on online libel, it is expected that sooner or later, our courts would be flooded with the filing of cases of what has been posted on facebook, twitter and the likes. If the libel is committed online, the penalty shall be increased by one degree based on what has been provided by the Revised Penal Code (Sec. 6 of Republic Act Number 10175 or otherwise known as Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012). The fact that the provision on online libel was only inserted before it was signed into law is already beside the point. That provision is already declared constitutional and would remain so unless declared otherwise by the same Supreme Court of the Philippines in the coming days or years. Wha...

These are crimes of infidelity.  Both crimes are committed when the parties are lawfully married, meaning they have celebrated their marriage under the Philippine laws.  Thus, if the parties are not married, regardless of multiple partners the other party may have, or regardless of how infidel the other party may be in the eyes of the other party, the aggrieved party cannot file adultery or concubinage as the case may be.

It seems that the defense of Vhong Navarro to his recent allegedly victim of rape Roxanne Acosta Cabanero is an alibi.  This is of course based only on the recent information gathered from the news recently. Accordingly, the victim was raped allegedly in the nearby vicinity of Astoria Plaza Hotel in Pasig City on the of April 24, 2010.  As reported, Vhong Navarro guested the concert of Vice Ganda which took place in Island Cove Resort in Cavite on the same night.  Please see http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/entertainment/02/23/14/vice-ganda-hotel-contradict-roxannes-rape-story for more information.  Thus, if this would be utilized by Navarro's camp, it is certainly a defense of alibi.

According to this website http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suicide, suicide is defined as the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally especially by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind. Based on the said definition suicide is an intentional act of the person himself.  He/She is also aware of the consequence of his/her act.  Thus, it is discretion on the part of the victim to commit it. Is it penalized under our laws or criminal laws to be specific to commit suicide?

When the law provides for the exemption of filing any criminal liability to supposedly offenders, the aggrieved party cannot do otherwise.  It is the law.  No matter how harsh it may be, it is the law.  Dura lex sed lex. In crimes committed against property, the Revised Penal Code provides persons who are exempt from any criminal liability.  However, they are not entirely without any liability because the victim may still file any civil liability to recover damages it may have from the commission of such crimes.

The Vhong Navarro-Cedric Lee-Deniece Cornejo case has ramified and has become more complicated with the recent twist of their dramatic story.  Though, the camp of Lee and Cornejo has denied with the hands to help the alleged victim of rape committed by Vhong Navarro in the open but the we really do not know the whole truth about it.

With the the declaration of the Supreme Court of the Philippines that several provisions of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 including penalizing internet libel are constitutional, a lot of the netizens were unhappy and worried about their freedom on speech online. Precisely the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was declared constitutional on Tuesday, February 18, 2014, thereby ending the debates on the constitutionality of the said law.  There are some provisions of the law that were declared unconstitutional. 

When these terms Robbery and Theft are translated in Filipino, they both known as "PAGNANAKAW" or "PANGAWAT" in Cebuano dialect.  They mean the same thing, so to speak, in layman's point of view. However, it is important to know the distinction between Robbery and Theft.  They may mean the same thing but they entail different implication.   Let us discuss first the commonalities of the two terms.

I have already defined the meaning of the accused in my previous post re: Respondent Versus Accused Versus Convict.  So if you would like to know what I am mentioning is all about, please read the said post. An accused is not yet a convict.  In the Philippine justice system, an accused is PRESUMED INNOCENT until proven otherwise.  Meaning, no matter how guilty the accused may appear, he is still innocent until the prosecution can prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

It is common in our society that when it comes to rape cases, it is usually a female who is a rape victim.  In fact, most of the rape cases filed in court are against men.  I bet you do not hear nor see in the news yet that a man files a rape case against someone. Now the questions are, could a man be a victim of rape?  Could a man file a rape case against another in court?

As reported in the news entertainment this week, singer-actress Aisa Seguerra proposed to her girlfriend Liza Dino.  Yes, both of them are women but that fact does not hinder them to love each other.  As a matter of fact, parents of the couple are very supportive about their relationship. You might ask whether the relationship of the two women is perfectly legal.  Yes, there is no provision in our laws that prohibits us from loving any person.  We may express to our love to anybody, be of the same gender or to the opposite.  We are even allowed to express our love to inanimate things.

These past few days, I busied myself in front of my computer, laptop or even in my ipad.  Not because I was hooked lately to clumsy-flappy bird, but blame it to my caseload.  At least I have something to blame on.  I have actually 3 criminal cases due for submission of their demurrers to evidence. As a defense lawyer, preparing demurrer to evidence is one of the tedious and time-consuming parts of litigation.  You need to scavenge voluminous files of the case inorder to present a meritorious demurrer to evidence.  Because once the demurrer is impressed with merits, it will dismiss the case.

We have always come across the terms Respondent, Accused and Convict.  From the news we saw and heard in television, from what we have read on our Facebook accounts and even from the small chika-chika we have in our friends, these terms seem ubiquitous and always present. However, from the minds of the common tao, these terms are referring to the same person.  They are associated with the person/s involved with the commission of the crime, so to speak.

In my blog UtMj'S PORTAL, I discussed in brief small claim cases.  Considering of the overwhelming reception of this topic, I feel obligated to explain this in detail.  Hence, I reblog this small claim cases but this time, I have placed this in my new blog which takes issues of legal Importance. It is already of common knowledge that in the Philippines, litigation takes time.  Not to mention the money spent in filing an action in court, it will really drag like forever before a final resolution is had.

The Filipinos were shocked and their values and morality were put into hot seat when Freddie Aguilar, popularly known as Ka Freddie who is the singer behind the world renown "ANAK", and his teen wife publicly announced of their romantic relationship.  Many have risen their eyebrows in trying to discredit either of the two. Accordingly, Ka Freddie was setting a bad example.  He should not be emulated.  His act in having a relationship to a teenage girl is not within the norms of the society.  As a matter of fact, there are people who sued Ka Freddie for child abuse.

To convict the accused, the prosecution must have witnesses and evidences to show proof beyond reasonable doubt; otherwise, the accused shall be acquitted. Thus, if the available witnesses of the prosecution as well as the evidences present would not be sufficient to indict the accused beyond reasonable doubt, the prosecution may move that one or more of the accused shall become as STATE WITNESS.

Majority of us Filipinos, I believe, would just settle and prefer more to buy toys for our children from the sidewalks and as well as those stores which sell toys from China.  Despite the fact that those toys are not labeled properly or labeled in absolute foreign language (not in English), we really do not mind about it.   We buy those unlabeled and improperly labeled toys unmindful of the chemicals they contain, don't we? Because most of the users of those toys we bought are children, especially toddlers, they would be prejudiced mostly to the hazardous chemicals present in the toys.   Because the State recognizes that children, by reason of their physical and mental immaturity, need special safeguard and care, the Congress has legislated a new law for their protection.  This law is known as "Toy and Gaming Safety Labeling Act of 2013" or the Republic Act Number 10620 .  Accordingly, the State acknowledges its obligation to secure the...

Just today, February 6, 2014, Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III renews his driver's license, two days before he turns 54, at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Tayuman, Manila (Sourced from Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines webpage, February 6, 2014). The act of our President only shows that everybody is ought to have a driver's license and also to have it renewed.  No one is above the law.  Thus, even if he already occupies the highest position of the land, it does not mean that he is exempt from complying the laws.

As what being broadcasted in the news recently, a husband was suspected of killing his own wife and their son in Maragondon, Cavite.  He was caught on closed-circuit television abandoning a Ford Fiesta car near his wife's relative's house along Timothy Street in Multinational Village, Parañaque City. The bodies of the victims were then discovered inside the car's trunk. When the suspect husband was arrested, he claimed of self-defense.

Yes, you read it right.  It is Lemon Law.  However, it is not intended for the protection or anything related to lemon fruits. It is actually for the protection of buyers of brand new vehicles later discovered to be substandard quality. The enactment of this law originated from the United States.  Accordingly, automobiles that are found to be defective before they are sold were labeled as "LEMONS".  Thus the term, Lemon Law.

I remember someone said that "killing of the child before birth is abortion and killing of the child after birth is murder". We are already aware of the fact that is is abortion if the child is killed before he/she is being born.  But what about killing of the child after birth, would this be called a murder? It is not always the case.

With what is happening today in our country, a lot of us are calling for the reimposition of the DEATH PENALTY.  Especially here in General Santos City, the call for the reimposition of death penalty has been amplified by the recent rape slay incident involving of an NDDU student just recently. It is already a common knowledge that our country has DEATH PENALTY before.  However due to Republic Act Number 9346 which was signed into law on June 24, 2006, the imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines was prohibited.  It was then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who signed this into law.

A 14-year old boy was caught in the act of raping a 7-year old girl.  What would be the liability, if any, does the boy have? We will answer this question in accordance to what has been provided by Republic Act No. 9344 or otherwise known as the "Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006" This law has defined what the child is.  Accordingly, the child refers to a person under the age of eighteen (18).  The age of the child shall be reckoned at the alleged time of the commission of the crime and not on the time when he/she was apprehended, nor at the moment the judgment shall be given. Further, said law has also classified the child into: 1.  A child who was 15 years old or under at the time of the commission of the crime. 2.  A child who was below 18 but above 15 years old at the time of the commission of the crime. Based also on the said law, the child who is alleged, as accused of, or adjudged as, having committed an offense under Phil...