Daily Serving of Legal Matters

For the information of the readers, we have a law penalizing the cattle rustling.  This law is known as Presidential Decree Number 533 or otherwise known as the Anti-Cattle Rustling Law of 1974. Photo courtesy of bing images. Based on the said law, cattle rustling is defined as the taking away by any means, methods or scheme, WITHOUT THE CONSENT of the owner/raiser, of any of the animals considered as large cattle whether or not for profit or gain, or whether committed with or without violence against or intimidation of any person or force upon things.  It includes the killing of large cattle, or taking its meat or hides without the consent of the owner/raiser. Thus if the taking away or the killing of any of the large cattle is with the consent of the owner/raiser, there is no cattle rustling to speak of. As provided in this law, large cattle shall include the COW, CARABAO, HORSE, MULE, ASS, or other domesticated member of the bovine family. What is the ...

A photo of carnapping taken from autocricket.com Last June 4, 2014, approved on second reading a bill purposely to revise the anti-carnapping act of the country. The bill is known as House Bill (HB) Number 4544 entitled "Revised Anti-Carnapping Act. Definition of a carnapping: Carnapping is the taking, with intent to gain, of a motor vehicle belonging to another without the latter's consent, or by means of violence against or intimidation of persons, or by using force upon things. Definition of a motor vehicle: Motor vehicle is any vehicle propelled by any power other than muscular power using the public highways, but excepting road rollers, trolley cars, street-sweepers, sprinklers, lawn mowers, bulldozers, graders, fork-lifts, amphibian trucks, and cranes if not used on public highways, vehicles, which run only on rails or tracks, and tractors, trailers and traction engines of all kinds used exclusively for agricultural purposes. Trailers having...

This is a page created by netizens in seeking justice for the slain daughter.  Image was taken from the page of ABS-CBNnews.com. This is the news that shattered the whole nation this week.  A father slashed the throat of his very own daughter and then he even posted the picture of his dead daughter to his Facebook account.  Accordingly, he (the father) had an earlier altercation with his wife over the internet that led to the brutal death of their child.  The wife is working abroad.  You may read the whole story at ABS-CBNnews.com. In this situation, the crime that the father is charged of is PARRICIDE.  It is parricide because of the relationship of the offender to the victim. According to the Revised Penal Code: Article 246:  Parricide - Any person who shall kill his father, mother, or child, whether legitimate or illegitimate, or any of his ascendants, or descendants, or his spouse, shall be guilty of parricide and shall be punis...

A client sought a legal advice with regards to his son.  Allegedly, his son was killed sometime in the 1990.  Granting without accepting that the facts of the case qualify it into a crime of murder, can it still be filed today? Before answering the question on whether or not the crime could still be filed today, the provision of the on prescription of crimes may enlighten the issue. "Prescription of crimes. - Crimes punishable by death, reclusion perpetua or reclusion temporal shall prescribe in twenty years. Crimes punishable by other afflictive penalties shall prescribe in fifteen years. Those punishable by correctional penalty shall prescribe in ten years; with the exception of those punishable by arresto mayor, which shall prescribe in five years. The crimes of libel or other similar offenses shall prescribe in one year. The offenses of oral defamation and slander by deed shall prescribe in six months. Light offenses prescribe in two months. ...

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.