G.R. No. 115156 December 14, 1995
Lessons Applicable: malum prohibitum
Laws Applicable:
FACTS:
·
Middle of August 1992: Chief Inspector Amador
Pabustan of the Criminal Investigation Section of the Philippine National
Police received a report from the International Police Organization (Interpol)
that a large shipment of narcotics was arriving in Manila by air mail so he
conferred it to the Pastor Guiao, Collector of Customs at the Ninoy Aquino
International Airport, who ordered an inspection of parcels of commercial
quantity coming from Hongkong, Singapore, Indonesia and Bangkok
·
September 3, 1992: Antonio Comia who works for TASCO,
a brokerage firm engaged in freight facilitating and forwarding, went to the
Airmail Distribution Center (ADC) to inquire about packages of their client
Mary Ong consisting of about 30 parcels which were addressed to various
individuals and bearing the identifying marks "VGM" or "VGMO"
which were supposed to have left the Hongkong Airport on September 2, 1992
·
Teresita Bajar informed him that they arrived
but under inspection and that the packages marked "VGM" had arrived
in bad order and that its contents, which turned out to be watches, had spilled
out so Comia told TASCO Manager Lydia Dizon who relayed it to Mary Ong
·
Upon failure to have the cargo to be released, Comia
arranged an appointment for Teodoro Evangelista, the owner of TASCO and Comia's
brother-in-law, to see Supervising Appraiser of the Air Parcel Division of the
Airmail Distribution Center Emmanuel Laudit
·
Evangelista came to see Laudit and suggested
"Perahin na lang eka iyan." Laudit advised Evangelista to speak
instead with Collector Guiao.
·
3 packages out of 9 where marked
"VGMO" and addressed to comia was found to contain plastic bags of
metamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.
·
Evangelista, who was present denied any
knowledge of the importation and claimied that the cargo belonged to Mary Ong.
·
Mary Ong was called and she executed an
affidavit admitting that the packages marked "VGM" were hers, but
were actually meant for Mrs. Go Shiu Ling, the sister of the sender in Hongkong
who asked her to facilitate the importation of the boxes of what she thought
contained watches.
·
About September 9, 1992: An information against
Comia was filed for conspiring and confederating together and mutually helping
one another, without authority of law, did then and there wilfully, unlawfully,
and feloniously import or bring into the Philippines Metamphetamine Hydrochloride
(shabu), a regulated drug
·
September 18, 1992: He pleaded not guilty on
arraignment
·
October 12, 1992: Information was amended to
include Teodoro Evangelista, who remained at large
·
RTC:
o
Dismissed the case against Bajar since she was
merely of being in the working area of the customs examiners of the ADC,
locating Comia's parcels, where she had no authority to be
o
granted the demurrers of Ong and Go since
Evangelista's affidavitwas inadmissible as evidence because Evangelista was not
presented to identify it. Likewise, Ong's own affidavit, in which she pointed
to Go as the real consignee of the packages, was also held to be inadmissible
on the ground that it had been taken while she was under custodial
investigation without assistance of counsel. She also made no mention of the
packages marked "VGMO" in her affidavit and admitted that the parcels
were sent to her by Yu Yen Jian, whereas the three parcels appeared to have
been shipped by a certain Ching Ming
o
Comia's demurrer was denied. He was found guilty
and sentenced to suffer life imprisonment and to pay a fine of P30,000.00
§
Comia was persistent in his follow up showed
that he knew the contents of the three parcels
§
He followed up even after becoming aware of the
arrival of the packages is an indication that he was there not merely to know
if they had arrived but to secure their immediate dispatch to the satellite
office
o
TASCO's modus operandi was to have the cargo of
clients divided into parcels which were then addressed to different individuals
in order to reduce or entirely avoid customs duties. The addressees were people
close to Evangelista, such as Comia, who is his brother-in-law, Lydia Dizon,
his sister-in-law, Joel Evangelista, his son, and Bert Tuazon, his neighbor and
addresses were interchanged or fictitious addresses were given. The packages were
coded with the initials of TASCO's clients so that they could be identified.
The code names "VGM" and "VGMO" stood for Mary Ong. Teresita Bajar knew the coded initials of
TASCO's clients, having been given a list of them so she monitors the packages and
relays them to Comia.
·
Comia appealed contending that if he knew that
the packages contained shabu, he would instead have gone into hiding
·
Emmanuel Laudit of the ADC allegedly warned
Lydia Dizon that the shipment was going to be discovered indicates the
existence of an alliance with Laudit
·
He had reason to work hard for the release of
the packages, now that the watches had been discovered and ranking officials of
the ADC presumably already knew that TASCO's packages had been misdeclared. He
had to have them released before the rest of the packages were inspected. When
his efforts failed, Comia called on his brother-in-law, Teodoro Evangelista,
who was the owner of the firm and a former customs policeman, so that the
latter could use his influence.
W/N: Comia can escape criminal responsibility due to lack of
criminal intent and good faith
HELD: NO. AFFIRMED. MODIFIED to reclusion perpetua
·
crime of transporting a prohibited drug is a
malum prohibitum
o
punished as an offense under a special law
o
wrong because it is prohibited by law regardless
of criminal intent.
·
acts mala in se - there must be a criminal intent
·
mala prohibita it is sufficient if the
prohibited act was intentionally done. "Care must be exercised in
distinguishing the difference between the intent to commit the crime and the
intent to perpetrate to act
·
notwithstanding that a majority of the
defendants have been acquitted, the accused had been held responsible for the
crime charged