Subject: Criminal Law II

Sub-Topic: Crimes Against National Security and Laws of Nations

Case 2:
PEOPLE vs. LOL-LO and SARAW
G.R. No. 17958, February 27, 1922

MALCOLM, J.:

FACTS: On or about June 30, 1920, two boats left matuta, a Dutch possession, for
Peta, another Dutch possession. After a number of days of navigation, at about 7
o'clock in the evening, the second boat arrived between the Islands of Buang and Bukid
in the Dutch East Indies. There the boat was surrounded by six vintas manned by
twenty-four Moros all armed. The Moros first asked for food, but once on the Dutch
boat, attacked some of the men, and brutally violated two of the women by methods too
horrible to the described. All of the persons on the Dutch boat, with the exception of the
two young women, were again placed on it and holes were made in it, the idea that it
would submerge, the Moros finally arrived at Maruro, a Dutch possession. Two of the
Moro marauder were Lol-lo, who also raped one of the women, and Saraw. At Maruro
the two women were able to escape.

Lol-lo and Saraw later returned to their home in South Ubian, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu,
Philippine Islands. There they were arrested and were charged in the Court of First
Instance of Sulu with the crime of piracy.

ISSUES:

1. Whether or not the offense charged was within the jurisdiction of the Court of
First Instance, nor of any court of the Philippine Islands, and that the facts
constitute a public offense.

2. Whether or not the provisions of the Penal Code dealing with the crime of piracy
are still in force.

RULING:

1. YES. All of the elements of the crime of piracy are present. Piracy is robbery or
forcible depredation on the high seas, without lawful authority and done animo
furandi, and in the spirit and intention of universal hostility. Piracy is a crime not
against any particular state but against all mankind. It may be punished in the
competent tribunal of any country where the offender may be found or into which
he may be carried. The jurisdiction of piracy unlike all other crimes has no
territorial limits (U.S. vs. Furlong).

2. YES. The general rules of public law recognized and acted on by the United
States relating to the effect of a transfer of territory from another State to the
 United States are well-known. The municipal law in so far as it is consistent with
the Constitution, the laws of the United States, or the characteristics and
institutions of the government, remains in force. The framers of the Constitution
and the members of Congress were content to let a definition of piracy rest on its
universal conception under the law of nations. We hold those provisions of the
Penal code dealing with the crime of piracy, notably articles 153 and 154, to be
still in force in the Philippines.

The vote upon the sentence is unanimous with regard to the propriety of the
imposition of the death penalty upon the defendant and appellant Lo-lo (the accused
who raped on of the women). The judgment of the trial court as to the defendant and
appellant Saraw is affirmed (life imprisonment), and is reversed as to the defendant and
appellant Lol-lo, who is found guilty of the crime of piracy and is sentenced therefor to
be hung until dead.