GR 46728; (September, 1939) (Digest)
G.R. No. 46728 ; September 30, 1939
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellant, vs. EDUARDO MONTENEGRO, defendant-appellee.
FACTS
The accused, Eduardo Montenegro, was charged in the Court of First Instance of Oriental Negros with a violation of section 114, Title 38, of the United States Code Annotated, for collecting excessive compensation from Valentina Calugcugan for prosecuting her claim for a U.S. military pension. The offense allegedly occurred in September 1932, but was discovered only in August 1937. The accused filed a motion to dismiss on the ground of prescription. The trial court sustained the motion and dismissed the case, holding the offense had prescribed. The prosecution appealed.
ISSUE
Whether the applicable prescriptive period for the offense is the three-year period under section 582, Title 18, of the United States Code Annotated, or the eight-year period under section 1(c) of Act No. 3763 (a Philippine law).
RULING
The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s order of dismissal. The applicable prescriptive period is the three-year period under section 582, Title 18, of the United States Code Annotated. The offense, being non-capital and not among the exceptions, prescribes in three years. Since the information was filed more than three years after the offense was committed in 1932, the crime had prescribed. Act No. 3763 , which provides for an eight-year period, applies only to violations penalized by special acts of the Philippine Legislature, not to offenses defined and penalized by United States statutes. To hold otherwise would create an unjust paradox where an offender in the Philippines would be treated differently from one in U.S. territory for violating the same U.S. law.
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