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 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.

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.