CRIM22024 ARTDIS

Question 1

Article 150. Disobedience to summons issued by the National Assembly, its committees or subcommittees, by the Constitutional Commissions, its committees, subcommittees or divisions.

Answer 1

The penalty of arresto mayor or a fine ranging from Forty thousand pesos (P40,000) to Two hundred thousand pesos (P200,000), or both such fine and imprisonment shall be imposed upon any person who, having been duly summoned to attend as a witness before Congress, its special or standing committees and subcommittees, the Constitutional Commissions and its committees, subcommittees, or divisions, or before any commission or committee chairman or member authorized to summon witnesses, refuses, without legal excuse, to obey such summons, or being present before any such legislative or constitutional body or official, refuses to be sworn or placed under affirmation or to answer any legal inquiry or to produce any books, papers, documents, or records in his possession, when required by them to do so in the exercise of their functions. The same penalty shall be imposed upon any person who shall restrain another from attending as a witness, or who shall induce disobedience to a summon or refusal to be sworn by any such body or official.

Question 2

(Article 150.) Acts punished as disobedience to the National Assembly or its
committee or Constitutional commission.

Answer 2

1. By refusing, without legal excuse, to obey summons of the National
   Assembly, its special or standing committees and subcommittees, the
   Constitutional commissions and its committees, subcommittees or
   divisions, or by any commission or committee chairman or member
   authorized to summon witnesses.
2. By refusing to be sworn or placed under affirmation while being before
   such legislative or constitutional body or official.
3. By refusing to answer any legal inquiry or to produce any books,
   papers, documents, or records in his possession, when required by
   them to do so in the exercise of their functions.
4. By restraining another from attending as a witness in such legislative
   or constitutional body.
5. By inducing disobedience to a summons or refusal to be sworn by any
   such body or official.

Question 3

Reasons for the provisions of Article 150 and the power of the
National Assembly to punish for contempt.

Answer 3

The power of inquiry — with process to enforce it — is an essential
and appropriate auxiliary to the legislative functions.
Experience has shown that mere requests for certain information
are often unavailing and also that information which is volunteered is not
always accurate or complete; so, some means of compulsion is essential to
obtain what is needed. (See Arnault vs. Nazareno, et al., supra)

Question 4

Article 151. Resistance and disobedience to a person in authority or the agents of such person.

Answer 4

The penalty of arresto mayor and a fine not exceeding One hundred thousand pesos (P100,000) shall be imposed upon any person who not being included in the provisions of the preceding articles shall resist or seriously disobey any person in authority, or the agents of such person, while engaged in the performance of official duties.

When the disobedience to an agent of a person in authority is not of a serious nature, the penalty of arresto menor or a fine ranging from Two thousand pesos (P2,000) to Twenty thousand pesos (P20,000) shall be imposed upon the offender.

Question 5

Article 151. Elements of resistance and serious disobedience (par. 1):

Answer 5

1. That a person in authority or his agent is engaged in the performance
   of official duty or gives a lawful order to the offender.
2. That the offender resists or seriously disobeys such person in authority
   or his agent.
3. That the act of the offender is not included in the provisions of Arts.
   148, 149, and 150.

Question 6

Article 151. Concept of the offense of resistance and disobedience.

Answer 6

The juridical conception of the crime of resistance and disobedience
to a person in authority or his agents consists in a failure to comply with
orders directly issued by the authorities in the exercise of their official
duties. Failure to comply with legal provisions of a general character or with
judicial decisions merely declaratory of rights or obligations, or violations
of prohibitory decisions do not constitute the crime of disobedience to the
authorities. (U.S. vs Ramayrat, 22 Phil. 183)

Question 7

Article 151. “While engaged in the performance of official duties.”

Answer 7

“While engaged in the performance of official duties.”
The phrase indicates the rule that in the crime of resistance and
disobedience, the person in authority or the agent of such person must be in
the actual performance of his official duties. This is so, because there can be
no resistance or disobedience when there is nothing to resist or to disobey.
But when a person in authority or his agent is in the performance of his
duty or gives an order and the performance of duty is resisted or the order
is disobeyed, then the crime is committed.

Question 8

A person cannot be guilty of disobedience to an order which is not
addressed to him.

Question 9

Article 151. Elements of simple disobedience (par. 2).

Answer 9

1. That an agent of a person in authority is engaged in the performance
   of official duty or gives a lawful order to the offender.
2. That the offender disobeys such agent of a person in authority.
3. That such disobedience is not of a serious nature.

Question 10

Article 151. For this crime to be proven, the two (2) key elements must be shown:

Answer 10

“(1) That a person in authority or his agent is engaged in the performance of official duty or gives a lawful order to the offender; and (2) That the offender resists or seriously disobeys such person or his agent.”53

Question 11

Article 150. Logic of Resisting

Answer 11

A man may abscond or evade or elude arrest, or may disobey the commands of an officer without using force but he cannot resist without using force of some kind or in some degree.If at the ultimate moment no force is employed to resist, there is not resistance but submission; and if it had been intended that every manifestation of force, however slight, against the authorities and their agents should bring the case under article 249, it was an idle waste of words to make other provisions to cover grave resistance and simple resistance. It therefore seems reasonable to hold that the words in article 249 relating to the employment of force are in some degree limited by the connection in which they are used and are less peremptory than they at first seem. Reasonably interpreted they appear to have reference to something more dangerous to civil society than a simple blow with the hands at the moment a party is taken into custody by a policeman.55 (Emphasis supplied)

Question 12

Direct assault distinguished from resistance or serious disobedience.

Answer 12

(1) In direct assault, the person in authority or his agent must be engaged
in the performance of official duties or that he is assaulted by reason
thereof; but in resistance, the person in authority or his agent must be
in actual performance of his duties.
(2) Direct assault (2nd form) is committed in four ways: (a) by attacking,
(b) by employing force, (c) by seriously intimidating, and (d) by
seriously resisting a person in authority or his agent; resistance or
serious disobedience is committed only by resisting or seriously
disobeying a person in authority or his agent.
(3) In both direct assault by resisting an agent of a person in authority
and resistance against an agent of a person in authority, there is force
employed, but the use of force in resistance is not so serious, as there
is no manifest intention to defy the law and the officers enforcing it.
The attack or employment of force which gives rise to the crime
of direct assault must be serious and deliberate; otherwise, even a case
of simple resistance to an arrest, which always requires the use of force
of some kind, would constitute direct assault and the lesser offense
of resistance or disobedience in Art. 151 would entirely disappear.
(People vs. Cauan, CA-G.R. No. 540, Oct. 11, 1938)
But when the one resisted is a person in authority, the use of any
kind or degree of force will give rise to direct assault.
If no force is employed by the offender in resisting or disobeying
a person in authority, the crime committed is resistance or serious
disobedience under the first paragraph of Art. 151.

Question 13

An agent of a person in authority is one who

Answer 13

by direct provision of law or by election or by appointment by competent authority, is charged with the maintenance of public order and the protection and security of life and property, such as barrio councilman, barrio policeman and barangay leader, and any person who comes to the aid of persons in authority[.]”44 Being a police officer, PO2 Navarro is an agent of a person in authority.

Question 14

Article 151. When the attack or employment of force is not deliberate, the crime
is only resistance or disobedience.

Answer 14

This is so, because the offender has no intent to ignore, disregard or
defy the authority or his agents.

Question 15

Article 152. Persons in authority and agents of persons in authority; Who shall be deemed as such.

Answer 15

In applying the provisions of the preceding and other articles of this Code, any person directly vested with jurisdiction, whether as an individual or as a member of some court or governmental corporation, board, or commission, shall be deemed a person in authority. A barrio captain and a barangay chairman shall also be deemed a person in authority.

A person who, by direct provision of law or by election or by appointment by competent authority, is charged with the maintenance of public order and the protection and security of life and property, such as a barrio councilman, barrio policeman and barangay leader and any person who comes to the aid of persons in authority, shall be deemed an agent of a person in authority.

In applying the provisions of Articles 148 and 151 of this Code, teachers, professors and persons charged with the supervision of public or duly recognized private schools, colleges and universities, and lawyers in the actual performance of their professional duties or on the occasion of such performance, shall be deemed persons in authority. (As amended by PD No. 299, Sept. 19, 1973 and Batas Pambansa Blg. 873, June 12, 1985).

Question 16

Article 152. A person in authority is one “directly vested with jurisdiction.”

Answer 16

By “directly vested with jurisdiction” is meant the power and authority
to govern and execute the laws.

Question 17

Article 152. The following are persons in authority:

Answer 17

The following are persons in authority:
1. The municipal mayor. (U.S. vs. Gumban, 39 Phil. 761; People vs.
Bondoc,e*a/.,47 0.G. 412)
2. Division superintendent of schools. (People vs. Benitez, 73 Phil. 671)
3. Public and private school teachers. (Art. 152, as amended by Rep. Act
No. 1978)
4. Teacher-nurse. (Sarcepuedes vs. People, 90 Phil. 228)
5. President of sanitary division. (People vs. Quebral, et al., 73 Phil.
640)
6. Provincial fiscal. (People vs. Francisco, C.A., 48 O.G. 4423)
7. Justice of the Peace. (U.S. vs. Garcia, 20 Phil. 358)
8. Municipal councilor. (People vs. Yosoya, CA-G.R. No. 8522-R, May 26,
1955)
9. Barrio captain and barangay chairman. (Art. 152, as amended by
Presidential Decree No. 299)

Question 18

Article 152. To be an agent of a person in authority, one must be charged with (2)

Answer 18

(1) the maintenance of public order, and (2) the protection and
security of life and property.

Question 19

Article 153. Tumults and other disturbance of public orders; Tumultuous disturbance or interruption liable to cause disturbance.

Answer 19

The penalty of arresto mayor in its medium period to prision correccional in its minimum period and a fine not exceeding Two hundred thousand pesos (P200,000) shall be imposed upon any person who shall cause any serious disturbance in a public place, office, or establishment, or shall interrupt or disturb public performances, functions or gatherings, or peaceful meetings, if the act is not included in the provisions of Articles 131 and 132.

The penalty next higher in degree shall be imposed upon persons causing any disturbance or interruption of a tumultuous character.

The disturbance or interruption shall be deemed to be tumultuous if caused by more than three persons who are armed or provided with means of violence.

The penalty of arresto mayor shall be imposed upon any person who in any meeting, association, or public place, shall make any outcry tending to incite rebellion or sedition or in such place shall display placards or emblems which provoke a disturbance of the public order.

The penalty of arresto menor and a fine not to exceed Forty thousand pesos (P40,000) shall be imposed upon these persons who in violation of the provisions contained in the last clause of Article 85, shall bury with pomp the body of a person who has been legally executed.

Question 20

Article 153. Meaning of “outcry.”

Answer 20

The word “outcry” in this article means to shout subversive or
provocative words tending to stir up the people to obtain by means of force
or violence any of the objects of rebellion or sedition.

Question 21

Article 153.What are tumults and other disturbances of public order?

Answer 21

They are:
1. Causing any serious disturbance in a public place, office or
establishment;
2. Interrupting or disturbing performances, functions or gatherings,
or peaceful meetings, if the act is not included in Arts. 131 and
132;
3. Making any outcry tending to incite rebellion or sedition in any
meeting, association or public place;
4. Displaying placards or emblems which provoke a disturbance of
public order in such place;
5. Burying with pomp the body of a person who has been legally
executed.

Question 22

Article 153.“Serious disturbance” must be planned or intended.

Answer 22

Where on the evening of the day before the election, a party of
100 persons composed mostly of partisans of a candidate for the office of
municipal president, marched down the street and stopped in front of a
house where a public meeting of another candidate was being held and
some words passed between the members of the crowd on the street and the
people at the windows upstairs where the meeting was being held, but no
attempt was made by the party outside to enter the house or to disturb the
meeting inside by any concerted action, other than by standing in a large
crowd about the doors of the house in such a way as to disturb the attentionof those attending the meeting inside, it was held that there being only some
slight disturbance and that partisan feeling was running very high at the
time, the party outside the house did not plan a serious disturbance or
intend that one should take place. The accused were found guilty only of
alarm (now punished under Art. 155) and were fined P5.00 each. (U.S. vs.
Domingo, 19 Phil. 69)

Question 23

Article 153. Meaning of “outcry.”

Answer 23

The word “outcry” in this article means to shout subversive or
provocative words tending to stir up the people to obtain by means of force
or violence any of the objects of rebellion or sedition.

Question 24

the distinction between an assault and a resistance to agents of authority

Answer 24

lies largely in the amount of the force employed in each case, and that a sudden blow given to a policeman while engaged in effecting an arrest does not constitute that employment of force which is punishable as assault. We have also considered the decision rendered by this court in the case against Cipriano Agustin . . . in which it was also held that a blow upon a policeman was not an aggression amounting to an assault. It must be remembered, however, that in these two cases the crime involved was that of assault upon agents of authority, in which the essential element is substantially the force employed. It is said in these two cases that any force is not sufficient to constitute an assault[,] but that it is necessary to consider the circumstances of each case to decide whether the force used is, or is not, sufficient to constitute assault upon an agent of authority.46 (Emphasis supplied, citations omitted)

Question 25

Article 153. Tumults and other disturbance of public orders; Tumultuous disturbance or interruption liable to cause disturbance.

Answer 25

The penalty of arresto mayor in its medium period to prision correccional in its minimum period and a fine not exceeding Two hundred thousand pesos (P200,000) shall be imposed upon any person who shall cause any serious disturbance in a public place, office, or establishment, or shall interrupt or disturb public performances, functions or gatherings, or peaceful meetings, if the act is not included in the provisions of Articles 131 and 132.

The penalty next higher in degree shall be imposed upon persons causing any disturbance or interruption of a tumultuous character.

The disturbance or interruption shall be deemed to be tumultuous if caused by more than three persons who are armed or provided with means of violence.

The penalty of arresto mayor shall be imposed upon any person who in any meeting, association, or public place, shall make any outcry tending to incite rebellion or sedition or in such place shall display placards or emblems which provoke a disturbance of the public order.

The penalty of arresto menor and a fine not to exceed Forty thousand pesos (P40,000) shall be imposed upon these persons who in violation of the provisions contained in the last clause of Article 85, shall bury with pomp the body of a person who has been legally executed.

Question 26

Article 153. What are the crimes classified under public disorders?

Answer 26

They are:
1. Tumults and other disturbances of public order. (Art. 153)
2. Unlawful use of means of publication and unlawful utterances.
(Art. 154)
3. Alarms and scandals. (Art. 155)
4. Delivering prisoners from jails. (Art. 156)

Question 27

Article 153. What are tumults and other disturbances of public order?
They are:

Answer 27

1. Causing any serious disturbance in a public place, office or
   establishment;
2. Interrupting or disturbing performances, functions or gatherings,
   or peaceful meetings, if the act is not included in Arts. 131 and
   132;
3. Making any outcry tending to incite rebellion or sedition in any
   meeting, association or public place;
4. Displaying placards or emblems which provoke a disturbance of
   public order in such place;
5. Burying with pomp the body of a person who has been legally
   executed.

Question 28

Inciting to sedition or rebellion distinguished from public disorder.
Question:

Answer 28

When may an outcry or displaying of emblems or placards
be a crime of inciting to rebellion or a crime of inciting to sedition, and when
may it be considered a simple public disorder under paragraph 4 of Art.
153?
Answer: For an outcry or the displaying of emblems or placards to
constitute inciting to commit rebellion or sedition, it is necessary that the
offender should have done the act with the idea aforethought of inducing his
hearers or readers to commit the crime of rebellion or sedition.
But if the outcry is more or less unconscious outburst which, although
rebellious or seditious in nature, is not intentionally calculated to induce
others to commit rebellion or sedition, it is only public disorder.
Circumstance qualifying the disturbance or interruption.
The penalty next higher in degree shall be imposed upon persons
causing any disturbance or interruption of a tumultuous character.

Question 29

Definition of the term “tumultuous.”

Answer 29

The disturbance or interruption shall be deemed to be tumultuous if
caused by more than three persons who are armed or provided with means
of violence.
One who fired a submachine gun to cause disturbance, but
inflicted serious physical injuries on another, may be prosecuted
for two crimes.
The one who fired the submachine gun committed two offenses (causing
serious disturbance in a public place, the people present becoming panicky
and terrified, and serious physical injuries through reckless imprudence),
although they arose from the same act of the offender. (People vs. Bacolod,
89 Phil. 621)