G.R. No. 117857; June 25, 2001
LUIS S. WONG, petitioner, vs. COURT OF APPEALS and PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, respondents.

FACTS

Petitioner Luis S. Wong filed a motion for reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s decision promulgated on February 2, 2001. In that decision, the Court, following AC No. 12-2000, deleted the penalty of imprisonment for his conviction under the Bouncing Checks Law (B.P. Blg. 22) but ordered him to pay fines corresponding to twice the face value of three checks in Criminal Cases Nos. CBU-12057, CBU-12058, and CBU-12055, as well as civil indemnity of P18,025.00. In his motion, Wong averred that the amount of civil indemnity was erroneous. He stated that the error was caused by the inadvertent addition of three checks from another case where he had already been acquitted, a fact noted in a footnote of the Court’s decision.

ISSUE

Whether the amount of civil indemnity imposed in the Supreme Court’s February 2, 2001 decision should be corrected.

RULING

The Supreme Court found the motion for reconsideration meritorious only with respect to the recomputation of civil indemnity. The Court corrected the civil indemnity to P15,285.00, which is the correct sum of the face value of the three checks involved in the present cases. Accordingly, the dispositive portion of the decision was amended. The petition was denied, and the penalty was modified by deleting the imprisonment. Petitioner was ordered to pay fines of P6,750.00 (for CBU-12057), P12,820.00 (for CBU-12058), and P11,000.00 (for CBU-12055), with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency. As civil indemnity, he was ordered to pay the face value of the checks totaling P15,285.00 to LPI with legal interest from the time of filing the criminal charges, and to pay the costs.