Pardo de Tavera vs. Garcia Valdez
Criminal Case Digest:
Digested Cases
Facts:
The defendant
is the editor of “Miau,” a periodical published and circulated in Manila, and
that an article containing the alleged injurious matter was published in the
issue of that periodical of September 15, 1901. The article is couched
throughout in grossly abusive language, and in terms not capable of being
misunderstood; charges the private prosecutor, who had been then recently
appointed a member of the United States Philippine Commission, with having
displayed cowardice at the time of the murder of his mother and sister and with
having subsequently entered into intimate political relations with the
assassin. The article contains other statements and imputations of a derogatory
character.
Issue: W/N the
offense is injuries grave and punishable under Article 458 of the RPC.
Held:
It is urged by
counsel that the official position of the private prosecutor should be
considered as an aggravating circumstance under Penal Code, article 10, No. 20.
The result, then, is that the penalty
prescribed by article 458, paragraph 1, of the Penal Code should be applied in
its medium grade, and in view of all the circumstances of the case we fix the
penalty as four years of destierro and a fine of 4,000 pesetas, with subsidiary liability to one day’s
banishment for every 12 pesetas not paid, and the costs of both instances
