Summary In this note, I submit that the prescriptive period for the violation of a special law is interrupted only when the complaint or information is filed in court, pursuant to the doctrine laid down by the Supreme Court en banc in Zaldivia v. Reyes (1992). The exception is a prosecution for a violation of…
In this note, I submit that the running of the prescriptive period for the prosecution of a BP 22 offense is interrupted only when the complaint or information is filed in court, not when the complaint is filed with the prosecutor’s office. Law on Prescriptive Period re violations of Ordinances and Special Laws Applying a…
The prosecution witness testified that the accused shot the victim. The witness identified an affidavit he had executed before a police investigator in which he also stated that the accused shot the victim. On cross-examination, the witness was asked whether his eyesight was poor and he replied that his vision was fine. The prosecution subsequently…
SUMMARY The leading case of King v. People, 319 SCRA 654 (1999), held that in a prosecution under B.P. Blg. 22, the prosecution must not only prove that the check was dishonored but also that the accused was actually notified of such dishonor. The King holding has been unstintingly followed by the Supreme Court in…
INTRODUCTION The hearsay rule is one of the most complex areas of the law on evidence. Its intricacies have fascinated – and bedeviled – law professors and law students alike. Nonetheless a thorough understanding of the hearsay rule cannot be overemphasized. For the trial lawyer, mastery of the hearsay rule can spell the difference between…
Does Rule 15 of the 2020 Rules of Civil Procedure apply to criminal cases? My opinion is that is the rules on motions under the 2017 Revised Guidelines for Continuous Trial of Criminal Cases, particularly III(2), which apply. In any case, a notice of hearing from the movant is no longer required. It is the…
The opening paragraph of Alanis v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 216425, 11 November 2020, reads as follows: “Reading Article 364 of the Civil Code together with the State’s declared policy to ensure the fundamental equality of women and men before the law, a legitimate child is entitled to use the surname of either parent…