L[aw]rd's Lair

Presidential Communication Privilege = applies to decision-making of the Pres. = applies to all documents in their entirety and covers final and post-decisional matters, as well as pre-deliberate ones. Deliberate Process Privilege = applies to decision-making of the Exec. officials. = includes advisory opinions, recommendations, and deliberations comprising part of a process by which gov. Decisions and policies are formatted. Doctrine of Operative Facts -           means that before a law was declared unconstitutional, its actual existence must be taken into account and whatever was done while the law was in operation should be recognized as valid. De facto municipal Corporation -           is one so defectively created as not to be a de jure corporation but is nevertheless the result of a bona fide attempt to incorporate under existing statutory authority, coupled with the...

FACTS: The accused were election inspectors and poll clerks whose duty among others was to transfer the names of excess voters in other precincts to the list of a newly created precinct.Several voters were omitted in the list.Because their names were not in the list, some of them were not allowed to vote. The accused were prosecuted for violation of Secs. 101 and 103 of the Revised Election Code. The accused claimed that they made the omission in good faith.The trial court seemed to believe that notwithstanding the fact that the accused committed in good faith the serious offense charged, the latter are criminally responsible therefor, because such offense is malum prohibitum, and, consequently, the act constituting the same need not be committed with malice or criminal intent to be punishable. ISSUE: Is the act of the accused merely a mala prohibita? HELD: The acts of the accused cannot be merely mala prohibita - they are mala in se . The omission or failure to include a voter’s...

FACTS: Andrea Mayor is a businesswoman engaged. Sometime in 1987, she was introduced to herein petitioner, Roberto Cruz who at that time was engaged in the business of selling ready-to-wear clothes at the Pasay Commercial Center. From then on, petitioner has been borrowing money from Mayor. On March 15, 1989, petitioner borrowed from Andrea Mayor one hundred seventy six thousand pesos (P176,000.00). On April 6, 1989, Mayor delivered the said amount to petitioner himself in the latter’s stall at the Pasay Commercial Center. Cruz, in turn, issued Premiere Bank Check No. 057848 postdated April 20, 1989 for same amount. When the check matured, complaining witness presented it to the drawee bank for payment but the same was dishonored and returned for reason "account closed." When notified of the dishonor, petitioner promised to pay his obligation in cash. No payment was made, hence, an information for violation of Batas Pambansa Bilang 22 was filed against the petitioner. peti...