Republic of the Philippines
SUPREME COURT
Manila
EN BANC
G.R. No. L-45364 June 7, 1938
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee,
vs.
JORGE LEYNEZ, defendant-appellant.
Julio D. Enriquez for appellant.
Office of the Solicitor-General Tuason for appellee.
DIAZ, J.:
Stated briefly, the question raised by the defendant's appeal is this:
If the crime of slight physical injuries committed is of the kind defined in paragraph 1 of article 266 of the Revised Penal Code and penalized with arresto menor, and the offender, after the commission of the crime, voluntarily surrenders to the agents of authority, and, when charged and arraigned, spontaneously pleads guilty, should the penalty be light fine or only public censure, having in view the rule established in article 64 that, when there are two or more mitigating circumstances without any compensating aggravating circumstance, the appropriate penalty to be imposed is that immediately lower?
The trial court held that it should be the first, while the appellant, with whom the Solicitor-General concurs, upholds the second.
The lower court, in meting out the indicated penalty, relied on the former text of article 71 of the Revised Penal Code worded as follows:
ART. 71. Fine. — The fine shall be considered as the last of all the principal penalties listed in the preceding article." It has undoubtedly missed the fact that Commonwealth Act No. 217, approved on November 24, 1936, substantially amended said article by clearly providing that the penalty immediately lower in degree than arresto menor is public censure. The pertinent portion of the amendment reads:
ART. 71. Graduated scales. — In the cases in which the law prescribes a penalty lower or higher by one or more degrees than another given penalty, the rules prescribe in article 61 shall be observed in graduating such penalty.
The lower or higher penalty shall be taken from the graduated scale in which is comprised the given penalty
The courts. in applying such lower or higher penalty, shall observe the following graduated scales:
SCALE No. 1
1. Death,
2. Reclusion perpetua,
3. Reclusion temporal,
4. Prison mayor,
5. Prision correccional,
6. Arresto mayor,
7. Destierro,
8. Arresto menor,
9. Public censure,
10. Fine.
It cannot alleged that the legal provision in force at the time of the commission of the crime of which the appellant was convicted, was the original article 71 of the Revised Penal Code, for the reason that this circumstance does not bar the application of its amendment which is more favorable to the appellant; since the rule in these s is that penal laws always have a retroactive effect when they are favorable to the convict, the only exception being the case which treats of a habitual delinquent. (Art. 22, Revised Penal Code.) In view of these considerations, we reach the conclusion and so bold that the penalty immediately lower in degree than arresto menor is public censure.
Wherefore, the appealed judgment is modified in the sense indicated, with costs de oficio. So ordered.
Avanceña, C.J., Villa-Real, Abad Santos, Imperial, Laurel and Concepcion. JJ., concur.
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