People v.

Perfecto (Case Digest)

Posted on July 10, 2014 by MissDennieIdea

People v. Perfecto, G.R. No. L-18463, October 4, 1922

FACTS: The issue started when the Secretary of the Philippine Senate,
Fernando Guerrero, discovered that the documents regarding the testimony of
the witnesses in an investigation of oil companies had disappeared from his
office. Then, the day following the convening of Senate, the newspaper La
Nacion edited by herein respondent Gregorio Perfecto published an article
against the Philippine Senate. Here, Mr. Perfecto was alleged to have violated
Article 256 of the Spanish Penal Code provision that punishes those who
insults the Ministers of the Crown. Hence, the issue.
ISSUE: Whether or not Article 256 of the Spanish Penal Code (SPC) is still in
force and can be applied in the case at bar?
HELD: No.
REASONING: The Court stated that during the Spanish Government, Article 256
of the SPC was enacted to protect Spanish officials as representatives of the
King. However, the Court explains that in the present case, we no longer have
Kings nor its representatives for the provision to protect. Also, with the change
ofsovereignty over the Philippines from Spanish to American, it means
that theinvoked provision of the SPC had been automatically abrogated. The
Court determined Article 256 of the SPC to be political in nature for it is about
the relation of the State to its inhabitants, thus, the Court emphasized that it is a
general principle of the public law that on acquisition of territory, the previous
political relations of the ceded region are totally abrogated. Hence, Article 256 of
the SPC is considered no longer in force and cannot be applied to the present
case. Therefore, respondent was acquitted.