Provisions on the Revised Rules on Evidence (A.M. No. 19-08-15-SC)

Question 1

Rule 128. General Provisions
Sec 1. Evidence defined.

Answer 1

Evidence is the means, sanctioned by these Rules, of ascertaining in a judicial proceeding the truth respecting a matter of fact.

Question 2

Rule 128. General Provisions
Sec 2. Scope.

Answer 2

The rules of evidence shall be the same in all courts and in all trials and hearings, except as otherwise provided by law or these Rules.

Question 3

Rule 128. General Provisions
Sec 3. Admissibility of evidence.

Answer 3

Evidence is admissible when it is relevant to the issue and not excluded by the Constitution, the law, or these Rules.

Question 4

Rule 128. General Provisions
Sec 4. Relevancy; collateral matters.

Answer 4

Evidence must have such a relation to the fact in issue as to induce belief in its existence or non-existence. Evidence on collateral matters shall not be allowed, except when it tends in any reasonable degree to establish the probability or improbability of the fact in issue.

Question 5

Rule 129. What Need Not Be Proved
Sec 1. Judicial notice, when mandatory.

Answer 5

A court shall take judicial notice, without the introduction of evidence, of the existence and territorial extent of states, their political history, forms of government and symbols of nationality, the law of nations, the admiralty and maritime courts of the world and their seals, the political constitution and history of the Philippines, official acts of the legislative, executive and judicial departments of the National Government of the Philippines, the laws of nature, the measure of time, and the geographical divisions.

Question 6

Rule 129. What Need Not Be Proved
Sec 2. Judicial notice, when discretionary.

Answer 6

A court may take judicial notice of matters which are of public knowledge, or are capable of unquestionable demonstration, or ought to be known to judges because of their judicial functions.

Question 7

Rule 129. What Need Not Be Proved
Sec 3. Judicial notice, when hearing necessary.

Answer 7

During the pre-trial and the trial, the court, motu proprio or upon motion, shall hear the parties on the propriety of taking judicial notice of any matter.

Before judgment or on appeal, the court, motu proprio or upon motion, may take judicial notice of any matter and shall hear the parties thereon if such matter is decisive of a material issue in the case.

Question 8

Rule 129. What Need Not Be Proved
Sec 4. Judicial admissions.

Answer 8

An admission, oral or written, made by the party in the course of the proceedings in the same case, does not require proof. The admission may be contradicted only by showing that it was made through palpable mistake or that the imputed admission was not, in fact, made.

Question 9

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
A. OBJECT (REAL) EVIDENCE
Section 1. Object as evidence.

Answer 9

Objects as evidence are those addressed to the senses of the court. When an object is relevant to the fact in issue, it may be exhibited to, examined or viewed by the court.

Question 10

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
Section 2. Documentary evidence.

Answer 10

Documents as evidence consist of writings, recordings, photographs or any material containing letters, words, sounds, numbers, figures, symbols, or their equivalent, or other modes of written expression offered as proof of their contents. Photographs include still pictures, drawings, stored images, x-ray films, motion pictures or videos.

Question 11

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
1. Original Document Rule
Section 3. Original document must be produced; exceptions.

Answer 11

When the subject of inquiry is the contents of a document, writing, recording, photograph or other record, no evidence is admissible other than the original document itself, except in the following cases:

(a) When the original is lost or destroyed, or cannot be produced in court, without bad faith on the part of the offeror;

(b) When the original is in the custody or under the control of the party against whom the evidence is offered, and the latter fails to produce it after reasonable notice, or the original cannot be obtained by local judicial processes or procedures;

(c) When the original consists of numerous accounts or other documents which cannot be examined in court without great loss of time and the fact sought to be established from them is only the general result of the whole;

(d) When the original is a public record in the custody of a public officer or is recorded in a public office; and

(e) When the original is not closely-related to a controlling issue.

Question 12

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
1. Original Document Rule
Section 4. Original of document.

Answer 12

(a) An “original” of a document is the document itself or any counterpart intended to have the same effect by a person executing or issuing it. An “original” of a photograph includes the negative or any print therefrom. If data is stored in a computer or similar device, any printout or other output readable by sight or other means, shown to reflect the data accurately, is an “original.”

(b) A “duplicate” is a counterpart produced by the same impression as the original, or from the same matrix, or by means of photography, including enlargements and miniatures, or by mechanical or electronic re-recording, or by chemical reproduction, or by other equivalent techniques which accurately reproduce the original.

(c) A duplicate is admissible to the same extent as an original unless (1) a genuine question is raised as to the authenticity of the original, or (2) in the circumstances, it is unjust or inequitable to admit the duplicate in lieu of the original.

Question 13

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
2. Secondary Evidence
Section 5. When original document is unavailable.

Answer 13

When the original document has been lost or destroyed, or cannot be produced in court, the offeror, upon proof of its execution or existence and the cause of its unavailability without bad faith on his or her part, may prove its contents by a copy, or by recital of its contents in some authentic document, or by the testimony of witnesses in the order stated.

Question 14

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
2. Secondary Evidence
Section 6. When original document is in adverse party’s custody or control.

Answer 14

If the document is in the custody or under the control of the adverse party, he or she must have reasonable notice to produce it. If after such notice and after satisfactory proof of its existence, he or she fails to produce the document, secondary evidence may be presented as in the case of its loss.

Question 15

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
2. Secondary Evidence
Section 7. Summaries.

Answer 15

When the contents of documents, records, photographs, or numerous accounts are voluminous and cannot be examined in court without great loss of time, and the fact sought to be established is only the general result of the whole, the contents of such evidence may be presented in the form of a chart, summary, or calculation.

The originals shall be available for examination or copying, or both, by the adverse party at a reasonable time and place. The court may order that they be produced in court.

Question 16

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
2. Secondary Evidence
Section 8. Evidence admissible when original document is a public record.

Answer 16

When the original of a document is in the custody of a public officer or is recorded in a public office, its contents may be proved by a certified copy issued by the public officer in custody thereof.

Question 17

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
2. Secondary Evidence
Section 9. Party who calls for document not bound to offer it.

Answer 17

A party who calls for the production of a document and inspects the same is not obliged to offer it as evidence.

Question 18

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
3. Parol Evidence Rule
Section 10. Evidence of written agreements.

Answer 18

When the terms of an agreement have been reduced to writing, it is considered as containing all the terms agreed upon and there can be, as between the parties and their successors in interest, no evidence of such terms other than the contents of the written agreement.

However, a party may present evidence to modify, explain or add to the terms of the written agreement if he or she puts in issue in a verified pleading:

(a) An intrinsic ambiguity, mistake or imperfection in the written agreement;

(b) The failure of the written agreement to express the true intent and agreement of the parties thereto;

(c) The validity of the written agreement; or

(d) The existence of other terms agreed to by the parties or their successors in interest after the execution of the written agreement.

The term “agreement” includes wills.

Question 19

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
4. Interpretation of Documents
Section 11. Interpretation of a writing according to its legal meaning.

Answer 19

The language of a writing is to be interpreted according to the legal meaning it bears in the place of its execution, unless the parties intended otherwise.

Question 20

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
4. Interpretation of Documents
Section 12. Instrument construed so as to give effect to all provisions.

Answer 20

In the construction of an instrument, where there are several provisions or particulars, such a construction is, if possible, to be adopted as will give effect to all.

Question 21

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
4. Interpretation of Documents
Section 13. Interpretation according to intention; general and particular provisions.

Answer 21

In the construction of an instrument, the intention of the parties is to be pursued; and when a general and a particular provision are inconsistent, the latter is paramount to the former. So a particular intent will control a general one that is inconsistent with it.

Question 22

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
4. Interpretation of Documents
Section 14. Interpretation according to circumstances.

Answer 22

For the proper construction of an instrument, the circumstances under which it was made, including the situation of the subject thereof and of the parties to it, may be shown, so that the judge may be placed in the position of those whose language he or she is to interpret.

Question 23

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
4. Interpretation of Documents
Section 15. Peculiar signification of terms.

Answer 23

The terms of a writing are presumed to have been used in their primary and general acceptation, but evidence is admissible to show that they have a local, technical, or otherwise peculiar signification, and were so used and understood in the particular instance, in which case the agreement must be construed accordingly.

Question 24

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
4. Interpretation of Documents
Section 16. Written words control printed.

Answer 24

When an instrument consists partly of written words and partly of a printed form, and the two are inconsistent, the former controls the latter.

Question 25

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
4. Interpretation of Documents
Section 17. Experts and interpreters to be used in explaining certain writings.

Answer 25

When the characters in which an instrument is written are difficult to be deciphered, or the language is not understood by the court, the evidence of persons skilled in deciphering the characters, or who understand the language, is admissible to declare the characters or the meaning of the language.

Question 26

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
4. Interpretation of Documents
Section 18. Of two constructions, which preferred.

Answer 26

When the terms of an agreement have been intended in a different sense by the different parties to it, that sense is to prevail against either party in which he or she supposed the other understood it, and when different constructions of a provision are otherwise equally proper, that is to be taken which is the most favorable to the party in whose favor the provision was made.

Question 27

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
4. Interpretation of Documents
Section 19. Construction in favor of natural right.

Answer 27

When an instrument is equally susceptible of two interpretations, one in favor of natural right and the other against it, the former is to be adopted.

Question 28

Rule 130. Rules of Admissibility
B. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
4. Interpretation of Documents
Section 20. Interpretation according to usage.

Answer 28

An instrument may be construed according to usage, in order to determine its true character.