EN BANC

The People of the Philippines Islands, plaintiff-appellee v.

Gregorio Perfecto, defendant-appellant.
[G.R No. L-18463/October 4, 1922]

Facts:
The important question is here squarely presented of whether article 256 of the Spanish Penal
Code, punishing "Any person who, by . . . writing, shall defame, abuse, or insult any Minister
of the Crown or other person in authority . . .," is still in force.

August 20, 1920, the Secretary of the Philippine Senate, Fernando M. Guerrero, discovered
that certain documents which constituted the records of testimony given by witnesses in the
investigation of oil companies, had disappeared from his office.

September 7, 1920, the newspaper La Nacion, edited by Mr. Gregorio Perfecto, published an
article in relation to the disappearance of the documents.

The Philippine Senate adopted a resolution authorizing its committee on flections and
privileges to report as to the action which should be taken with reference to the published
article in La Nacion. As a result, an information was filed in the municipal court of the city of
Manila, on the alleged that the editorial in question violated Article 256 of the Penal Code.
Under this provision, one of the crimes to be punished was the crime of Lese Majeste. It
means the Insulting of a monarch or the other ruler; or can be called treason.

Perfecto’s main proposition in the lower court was that Article 256 of the Spanish Penal Code
is no longer in force because it was already abrogated by the change from Spanish to
American sovereignty over the Philippines and because of its inconsistent with democratic
principles of the Government

Thereafter, Perfecto was found guilty by the court.

Supreme Court, with the writer of the instant decision dissenting on two principal grounds.
(1) The accused was deprived of the Constitutional right of cross-examination; and (2) that
Article 256 of the Spanish Code is no longer in force.

(2). Supreme Court here stated 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. “Political” is here used to denominate the laws regulating the relations sustained
by the inhabitants to the sovereign.

On American acquisition of the Philippines, then President McKinley said that “the first
effect of the military occupation of the enemy’s territory is the severance of the former
political relation of the inhabitants and the establishment of the new political power.”
Furthermore, Supreme Court said that the Article 256 of the Spanish Penal Code was enacted
by the Government of Spain to protect Spanish officials who were the representatives of the
King. With the change of sovereignty, a new government, and a new theory of government,
was set up in the Philippines. It was no sense a continuation of old; and that there is no longer
minister of the crown or a person in authority of such exalted position that the citizen speaks
of him only with bated breath.

Article 256 of the Penal Code is contrary to the fundamental principles of the American
character and system of government The American system of government is calculated to
enforce respect and obedience where such respect and obedience is due, but never does it
place around the individual who happens to occupy an official position by mandate of the
people any official halo, which calls for drastic punishment for contemptuous remarks.

The crime of lese majeste disappeared in the Philippines with the ratification of the Treaty of
Paris. Ministers of the Crown have no place under the American flag.

CONCURRING
“I am of the opinion that article 256 of the Penal Code is still in force, except as it refers to
"Ministers of the Crown," whom we do not have in our Government”