September 2017 - page 12

FACTS: Four separate complaints for rape were instituted against the accused-appellants. All three were found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of rape and were meted with the sentence of reclusion perpetua and ordered to indemnify each of their victims. ISSUE(S): Whether or not appellant Putulin may still challenge the validity of his warrantless arrest and detention. HELD: NO. Any objection involving a warrant of arrest or the procedure in the acquisition by the court of jurisdiction over the person of an accused must be made before he enters his plea, otherwise the objection is deemed waived. This issue…

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FACTS: The National Capital Region District Command (NCRDC) was activated on January 20, 1987 pursuant to Letter of Instruction 02/87 of the Philippine General Headquarters, AFP, with the mission of conducting security operations within its area of responsibility and peripheral areas, for the purpose of establishing an effective territorial defense, maintain peace and order, and providing an atmosphere conducive to the social, economic and political development of the National Capital Region. The NCRDC installed checkpoints in various parts of Valenzuela, Metro Manila. ISSUE(S): Whether or not checkpoints are illegal as they violate the people’s right against unreasonable searches and seizures.…

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FACTS: A PC officer and some companions went to the house rented by accused-appellant where they were allowed entry into the house by the house help. upon entering, they saw radio sets, pamphlets, Xerox copiers and a computer machine. They asked and were granted permission to look around by the persons inside the house. In one of the rooms, they saw books used for subversive orientation, one M-14 rifle, bullets and ammunitions, among others. They confiscated the articles and brought them to their headquarters for final inventory. They likewise brought the persons found in the house to the headquarters for…

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FACTS: Petitioner Tomas Velasco was not inside their rented hotel room when a team of agents raided their room and seized documents and papers. They were allowed entry inside said room by a woman who appeared to be petitioner’s wife but turned out to be a manicurist. ISSUE(S): Whether or not there was consent to allow the warrantless search and seizure of Velasco’s rented hotel room. HELD: YES. Where, at the time the government agents entered and searched the hotel room then being rented by petitioner, a woman who appeared to be the wife of petitioner was inside the room,…

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FACTS: Respondent judges on different dates issued a total of 42 search warrants against the petitioners and/or the companies of which they were officers, directing any peace officers to search the persons of the petitioners and/or the premises of their offices, warehouses and/or residences and to seize and take possession of “books of accounts, financial records, vouchers, correspondence, receipts, ledgers, journals, portfolios, credit journals, typewriters, and other documents and/or papers showing all business transactions including disbursements receipts, balance sheets and profit and loss statements and Bobbins (cigarette wrappers)” as “the subject of the offense; stolen or embezzled and proceeds or…

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FACTS: Section 35 of RA 7354, the law creating the Philippine Postal Corporation, withdraws the franking privileges from the judiciary, along with certain other government offices. ISSUE(S): Whether or not Section 35 of RA 7354 violates the equal protection guarantee of the Constitution. HELD: YES. In lumping the Judiciary with the other offices from which the franking privilege has been withdrawn, Section 35 has placed the courts of justice in a category to which it does not belong. If it recognizes the need of the President of the Philippines and the members of Congress for the franking privilege, there is…

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FACTS: The Municipal Board of Ormoc City passed Ordinance No. 4 imposing a tax “on any and all products of centrifugal sugar milled at the Ormoc Sugar Company, Inc.” ISSUE(S): Whether or not Ordinance No. 4 is unconstitutional for being violative of the equal protection clause. HELD: YES. The ordinance taxes only centrifugal sugar produced and exported by petitioner sugar company and none other. Even if later a similar company is set up, it cannot be subject to the tax because the ordinance expressly points only to Ormoc City Sugar Company, Inc. as the entity to be levied upon. Decision…

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FACTS: Accused was sentenced to a fine for violating Act No. 1639 which prohibits a member of a non-Christian tribe “to buy, receive, have in his possession, or drink any ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or intoxicating liquors of any kind, other than the so-called native wines and liquors which the members of such tribes have been accustomed themselves to make.” ISSUE(S): Whether or not Act No. 1639 is unconstitutional for being violative of the equal protection clause of the Constitution. HELD: NO. The prohibition is unquestionably designed to insure peace and order in and among the non-Christian tribes. It…

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FACTS: Respondent Ombudsman subpoenaed petitioners in connection with his investigation of an anonymous letter alleging that funds representing savings from unfilled positions in the Economic Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (EIIB). ISSUE(S): Whether or not there was a violation of petitioners’ right to the equal protection of the laws. HELD: NO. In the first place, there can be no objection to this procedure because it is provided in the Constitution itself. In the second place, it is apparent that in permitting the filing of complaints “in any form and in a manner,” the framers of the Constitution took into account the…

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