GR 41740; (November, 1934) (Digest)
G.R. No. 41740 ; November 16, 1934
TEO TUNG (alias TEO TUNGA), petitioner-appellant, vs. PERRY L. MACHLAN, Acting Collector of Customs, and JOSE MAGNO, Chief of the Secret Service of Customs of the Port of Jolo, respondents-appellees.
FACTS
Petitioner Teo Tung, a Chinese alien, had been lawfully residing in the Philippines since the Spanish era. In 1914, he was convicted for violating the Opium Law ( Act No. 1761 ) and sentenced to deportation, which was executed on April 10, 1915. However, within the same year (1915), he returned to the Philippines and resumed residence with his family in Siasi, Sulu, where he lived openly and conducted business for about 18 years. In 1917, he was again detained for deportation but was released by order of then Governor-General Francis Burton Harrison. In 1933, customs authorities arrested him and ordered his deportation based on the 1914 sentence. Teo Tung filed a petition for injunction or, alternatively, a writ of habeas corpus.
ISSUE
Whether Teo Tung may be deported based on the 1914 sentence after the enactment of the Revised Penal Code, which omitted deportation as a penalty for opium offenses, and considering his subsequent release by the Governor-General.
RULING
No. The Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s decision ordering Teo Tung’s surrender for deportation. The Court held: (1) The 1914 deportation sentence had already been fully executed; it could not be enforced anew. (2) While the Revised Penal Code’s omission of deportation for opium offenses meant such penalty could no longer be imposed by a court, it did not invalidate a prior lawful deportation or preclude administrative deportation proceedings. (3) Crucially, the 1917 release by the Governor-General, who possessed plenary power over alien deportation, constituted a definitive administrative determination that Teo Tung was not an undesirable alien subject to deportation. Therefore, the customs authorities’ attempt to enforce the 1914 sentence was arbitrary and illegal. The case was remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion, implying Teo Tung was entitled to a writ of habeas corpus if in custody.
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