G.R. No.L-18924 October 19, 1922
ROMUALDEZ,
J.
FACTS:
·
appellee is accused of having
illegally smoked opium, aboard the merchant vessel Changsa of English
nationality while said vessel was anchored in Manila Bay two and a half miles
from the shores of the city.
·
Lower court dismissed the case
ISSUE: W/N the courts of the Philippines
have jurisdiction over crime committed aboard merchant vessels anchored in our
jurisdiction waters
HELD: The order appealed from is revoked
and the cause ordered remanded to the court of origin for further proceedings
in accordance with law, without special findings as to costs.
YES.
·
2 fundamental rules on this
particular matter in connection with International Law
- French rule-according to which crimes committed aboard a foreign merchant vessels should not be prosecuted in the courts of the country within whose territorial jurisdiction they were committed
UNLESS: their
commission affects the peace and security of the territory
- English rule
-based on the
territorial principle and followed in the United States
-according to
which crimes perpetrated under such circumstances are in general triable in the
courts of the country within territory they were committed.
·
As to whether the United
States has ever consented by treaty or otherwise to renouncing such
jurisdiction or a part thereof, we find nothing to this effect so far as
England is concerned, to which nation the ship where the crime in question was
committed belongs.
·
mere possession of opium
aboard a foreign vessel in transit was held by this court not triable by or
courts, because it being the primary object of our Opium Law to protect the
inhabitants of the Philippines against the disastrous effects entailed by the
use of this drug, its mere possession in such a ship, without being used in our
territory, does not being about in the said territory those effects that our
statute contemplates avoiding. Hence such a mere possession is not considered a
disturbance of the public order.
·
to smoke opium within our
territorial limits, even though aboard a foreign merchant ship, is certainly a breach
of the public order here established, because it causes such drug to produce
its pernicious effects within our territory. It seriously contravenes the
purpose that our Legislature has in mind in enacting the aforesaid repressive
statute.