Daily Serving of Legal Matters

Before you buy a secondhand item or goods, you have to make it sure that the same came from a legitimate source, otherwise, you might be indicted with the crime violating an Anti-Fencing Law of 1979.  It is common for us that we buy secondhand items or goods impulsively especially gadgets that are sold at a very low price.  Before you know it, you are buying gadgets which are relatively "GSM" or "GALING SA MAGNANAKAW" and you might see yourself defending in court. Secondhand goods sold in the market.  Courtesy of bing images.   As defined in Presidential Decree No. 1612 or otherwise known as the Anti-Fencing Law of 1979, fencing is the act of any person who, with intent to gain for himself or for another, shall buy, receive, possess, keep, acquire, conceal, sell or dispose of, or shall buy and sell, or in any other manner deal in any article, item, object or anything of value which he knows, or should be known to him, to have been derived from the pr...

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.