MOTION TO QUASH

COME NOW defendants, by counsel and unto this Honorable Court, most respectfully
move to quash the information filed against the defendants on the ground of lack of
jurisdiction over the subject matter.

ARGUMENTS

Defendants are indicted for committing the crime of "Unjust Vexation" that is punished
under the Article 287, Paragraph 2 of the Revised Penal Code; Said provision states
that:
"Any other coercions or unjust vexations shall be punished by arresto menor or a fine
ranging from 5 pesos to 200 pesos, or both."(emphasis ours)

Defendants, however, most respectfully submit that this Honorable Court lacks
jurisdiction over the subject matter of the offense for the reason that article 287,
paragraph 2 of the revised penal code that punishes "unjust vexations" cannot be a
basis of any criminal prosecution for being NULL AND VOID AND patently
unconstitutional on its face because of the FOLLOWING reasons:
a)Said penal provision condemns no specific or definite act or omission thus failing to
define any crime or felony;
b)Said penal provision is so indefinite, vague and overbroad as not to enable it to be
known what ACT is forbidden;
c)Such vagueness and overbreadth result to violation of the due process clause and the
right to be informed of the nature of the offense charged;
d) such vagueness and overbreadth likewise amount to an invalid delegation by
Congress of legislative power to the courts to determine what acts should be held to be
criminal and punishable.
e) a criminal or penal legislation must clearly define or specify the particular act or acts
punished
It is a well-established doctrine that a criminal or penal legislation must clearly define or
specify the particular acts or omissions punished. As early as 1916, in the case of
"United States vs. Luling, 34 Phil. 725, our Honorable Supreme Court had the occasion
to hold that:
"In some of the States, as well as in England, there exist what are known as common
law offenses. In the Philippine Islands no act is a crime unless it is made so by statute.
The state having the right to declare what acts are criminal, within certain well defined
limitations, has a right to specify what act or acts shall constitute a crime, as well as
what act or acts shall constitute a crime, as well as what proof shall constitute prima
facie evidence of guilt, and then to put upon the defendant the burden of showing that
such act or acts are innocent and are not committed with any criminal intent or
intention."(emphasis and underscoring ours, cited in the fairly recent case of Dizon-
Pamintuan v. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 111426, July 11, 1994) (emphasis and
underscoring ours).
Two years later, this was followed by a scholarly exposition by Justice Johnson in the
case of In re: R. MCCULLOCH DICK, 38 Phil. 41, April 16, 1918, where he stated that:
"x x x In the Philippine Islands no act is a crime unless it is made so by law. The law
must specify the particular act or acts constituting the crime. If that were not so, the
inhabitants could not know when they would be liable to be arrested, tried and
punished. Otherwise the mandatory provisions of the law, that all criminal laws shall be
prescribed, would prove to be a pitfall and a snare. The inhabitants of the Philippine
Islands, whether citizens, denizens or friendly aliens, have a right to know, in advance
of arrest, trial and punishment, the particular acts for which they may be so tried. They
cannot be arrested and tried, and then be informed for the first time that their acts have
been subsequently made a crime, and be punished therefor. x x x"(emphasis and
underscoring ours).
Justice (later Chief Justice) Fernando in his concurring opinion in the case of PEOPLE
v. CABURAL, G.R. No. L-34105, February 4, 1983, also made a similar observation,
stating that:
"The maxim Nullum crimen nulla poena sine lege has its roots in history. It is in
accordance with both centuries of civil law and common law tradition. Moreover, it is an
indispensable corollary to a regime of liberty enshrined in our Constitution. It is of the
essence then that while anti-social acts should be penalized, there must be a clear
definition of the punishable offense as well as the penalty that may be imposed - a
penalty, to repeat, that can be fixed by the legislative body, and the legislative body
alone. So constitutionalism mandates, with its stress on jurisdictio rather than
guvernaculum. The judiciary as the dispenser of justice through law must be aware of
the limitation on its own power." (emphasis and underscoring ours).
The rationale of said doctrine that a criminal or penal legislation must clearly define or
specify the particular act or acts punished is ably explained by the United Stated
Supreme Court in the case of LANZETTA v. STATE OF NEW JERSEY, 306 U.S. 451,
where it held that:
"x x x It is the statute, not the accusation under it, that prescribes the rule to govern
conduct and warns against transgression. x x x No one may be required at peril of life,
liberty or property to speculate as to the meaning of penal statutes. All are entitled to be
informed as to what the State commands or forbids. x x x" (emphasis and underscoring
ours).
Article 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code condemns no SPECIFIC act or
omission!Therefore, it does not define any crime or felony.
Paragraph 2 of Article 287 of the Revised Penal Code does not define, much less
specify, the acts constituting or deemed included in the term "unjust vexations" resulting
to making the said provision a sort of a "catch-all" provision patently offensive to the due
process clause;
The right to define and punish crimes is an attribute of sovereignty. Each State has the
authority, under its police power, to define and punish crimes and to lay down the rules
of criminal procedure. Pursuant to this power to define and punish crimes, the State
may not punish an act as a crime unless it is first defined in a criminal statute so that the
people will be forewarned as to what act is punishable or not. The people cannot be left
guessing at the meaning of criminal statutes;
Moreover, Article 3 of the Revised Penal Code defines felonies (delitos) as "acts or
omissions" punishable by law. Article 287, Par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code condemns
no specific act or omission! Therefore, it does not define any crime or felony!
Philippine Jurisprudence is replete with examples that would readily show that Art. 287,
Par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code has not been used to prosecute a well-defined or
specific criminal act.Instead, it was used as a "catch-all" provision to prosecute acts
which are not expressly made criminal by any other provision of the Revised Penal
Code. This is anathema to criminal due process that requires notice of what specific act
or omission is punished by law;
An examination of the annals of our jurisprudence would likewise show that Art. 287,
par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code has not been used to punish a specific act:
a)In People v. Reyes, 60 Phil. 369, August 23, 1934, accused were found guilty of
unjust vexation by their act of disturbing or interrupting a ceremony of a religious
character;
b)In Lino v. Fugoso, 77 Phil. 983, January 30, 1947, it was used to prosecute the
accused of unjust vexation committed by stopping the jeep driven by the complainant in
a threatening attitude and without any just cause therefor and telling him to stop driving
for the City of Manila while the strike of city laborers was still going on;
c)In People v. Reyes, 98 Phil. 646, March 23, 1956, it was held that the act of seizing,
taking and holding possession of passenger jeep belonging to complainant, without the
knowledge and consent of the latter, for the purpose of answering for the debt of the
said owner, constitutes unjust vexation;
d)In People v. Yanga, 100 Phil. 385, November 28, 1956, accused was convicted of
unjust vexation for the act of compelling the complainant to do something against his
will, by holding the latter around the neck and dragging him from the latter's residence to
the police outpost;
e)In People v. Abuy, G.R. No. L-17616, May 30, 1962, the accused was prosecuted for
unjust vexation for the act of embracing and taking hold of the wrist of the complainant;
f)In People v. Carreon, G.R. No. L-17920, May 30, 1962, accused was convicted of
unjust vexation by the act of threatening the complainant by holding and pushing his
shoulder and uttering to the latter in a threatening tone the following words: "What
inspection did you make to my sister in the mountain when you are not connected with
the Bureau of Education?"
g)In People v. Gilo, G.R. No. L-18202, April 30, 1964, the Court held that the absence of
an allegation of "lewd design" in a complaint for acts of lasciviousness converts the act
into unjust vexation;
h)In Andal v. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. L-29814, March 28, 1969, accused
were found guilty of unjust vexation under an information charging them with the offense
of offending religious feelings, by the performance of acts notoriously offensive to the
feelings of the faithful;
i)In People v. Maravilla, G.R. No. L-47646, September 19, 1988, a accused was
convicted of unjust vexation for the act of grabbing the left breast of the complainant
against her will; and
j) Recently in Kwan v. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 113006, November 23, 2000, the act
of abruptly cutting off the electric, water pipe and telephone lines of a business
establishment causing interruption of its business operations during peak hours was
held as unjust vexation;
From the above-cited cases, it clearly appears that Art. 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal
Code does not punish a specific act.Instead, any and all kind of acts that are not
specifically covered by any other provision of the Revised Penal Code and which may
cause annoyance, irritation, vexation, torment, distress or disturbance to the mind of the
person to whom it is directed may be punished as unjust vexation; art. 287, par. 2 of the
revised penal code suffers from A CONGENITAL DEFECT OF vagueness and must be
stricken down.
The term "unjust vexation" is a highly imprecise and relative term that has no common
law meaning or settled definition by prior judicial or administrative precedents; Thus, for
its vagueness and overbreadth, said provision violates due process in that it does not
give fair warning or sufficient notice of what it seeks to penalize;
This kind of challenge to the constitutionality of a penal statute on ground of vagueness
and overbreadth is not entirely novel in our jurisdiction. In an en banc decision in the
case of GONZALES v. COMELEC, G.R. No. L-27833, April 18, 1969, re:
Constitutionality of Republic Act No. 4880, our Honorable Supreme Court had the
occasion to rule that the terms "election campaign" and "partisan political activity" which
are punished in said R.A. 4880 would have been void for their vagueness were it not for
the express enumeration of the acts deemed included in the said terms. The Supreme
Court held:
"The limitation on the period of "election campaign"or "partisan political activity" calls for
a more intensive scrutiny. According to Republic Act No. 4880: "It is unlawful for any
person whether or not a voter or candidate, or for any group or association of persons,
whether or not a political party or political committee, to engage in an election campaign
or partisan political activity except during the period of one hundred twenty days
immediately preceding an election involving a public office voted for at large and ninety
days immediately preceding an election for any other elective public office. The term
'candidate' refers to any person aspiring for or seeking an elective public office
regardless of whether or not said person has already filed his certificate of candidacy or
has been nominated by any political party as its candidate. The term 'election campaign'
of 'partisan political activity' refers to acts designed to have a candidate elected or not or
promote the candidacy of a person or persons to a public office . . ."
"If that is all there is to that provision, it suffers from the fatal constitutional infirmity of
vagueness and may be stricken down. x x x x x x x x x x x x.
"There are still constitutional questions of a serious character then to be faced. The
practices which the act identifies with "election campaign" or"partisan political activity"
must be such that they are free from the taint of being violative of free speech, free
press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association. What removes the sting from
constitutional objection of vagueness is the enumeration of the acts deemed included in
the terms "election campaign" or "partisan political activity." (emphasis and
underscoring ours).
Article 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code punishes "unjust vexations" and that is all
there is to it! As such, applying the incontestable logic of the Supreme Court in said
case of GONZALES v. COMELEC would lead us to the inescapable conclusion that
said penal provision suffers from the fatal constitutional infirmity of vagueness and must
be stricken down;
In the case of Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U.S. 385, cited by our own
Supreme Court en banc in the case of Ermita-Malate Hotel and Motel Operators Assn.,
Inc. v. City Mayor of Manila, G.R. No. L-24693, July 31, 1967), the United States
Supreme Court ruled:
"That the terms of a penal statute creating a new offense must be sufficiently explicit to
inform those who are subject to it what conduct on their part will render them liable to its
penalties is a well-recognized requirement, consonant alike with ordinary notions of fair
play and the settled rules of law; and a statute which either forbids or requires the doing
of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at
its meaning and differ as to its application violates the first essential of due process of
law." (emphasis and underscoring ours).
In fact, it is worst in the case of the 2nd Paragraph of Article 287 of the Revised Penal
Code because it punishes "unjust vexations" without even defining or enumerating the
acts constituting the said crime thus leaving men of common intelligence necessarily
guessing at its meaning and differing as to its application in complete disregard of
constitutional due process;
Our Supreme Court in the case of U.S. v. NAG TANG HO, 43 Phil. 1, held that one
cannot be convicted of a violation of a law that fails to set up an ascertainable standard
of guilt. Said ruling cites the landmark case of U.S. v. L. COHEN GROCERY CO., 255
U.S. 81, where the United States Supreme Court in striking down Section 4 of the
Federal Food Control Act of August 10, 1917, as amended, as unconstitutional, stated
that:
"The sole remaining inquiry, therefore, is the certainty or uncertainty of the text in
question, that is, whether the words 'that it is hereby made unlawful for any person
willfully ... to make any unjust or unreasonable rate or charge in handling or dealing in or
with any necessaries,' constituted a fixing by Congress of an ascertainable standard of
guilt and are adequate to inform persons accused of violation thereof of the nature and
cause of the accusation against them. That they are not, we are of opinion, so clearly
results from their mere statement as to render elaboration on the subject wholly
unnecessary. Observe that the section forbids no specific or definite act. It confines the
subject matter of the investigation which it authorizes to no element essentially inhering
in the transaction as to which it provides. It leaves open, therefore, the widest
conceivable inquiry, the scope of which no one can foresee and the result of which no
one can foreshadow or adequately guard against. In fact, we see no reason to doubt the
soundness of the observation of the court below in its opinion to the effect that, to
attempt to enforce the section would be the exact equivalent of an effort to carry out a
statute which in terms merely penalized and punished all acts detrimental to the public
interest when unjust and unreasonable in the estimation of the court x x x (emphasis
and underscoring ours).
Recently, in COATES v. CITY OF CINCINNATI, 402 U.S. 611, the United States
Supreme Court passed upon the issue of constitutionality of a Cincinnati, Ohio,
ordinance that provides that:
It shall be unlawful for three or more persons to assemble, except at a public meeting of
citizens, on any of the sidewalks, street corners, vacant lots, or mouths of alleys, and
there conduct themselves in a manner annoying to persons passing by, or occupants of
adjacent buildings. Whoever violates any of the provisions of this section shall be fined
not exceeding fifty dollars ($50.00), or be imprisoned not less than one (1) nor more
than thirty (30) days or both. Section 901-L6, Code of Ordinances of the City of
Cincinnati. (emphasis and underscoring ours).
In hammering down the constitutionality of the above-cited Cincinnati, Ohio ordinance in
its landmark decision, the United States Supreme Court held that:
Conduct that annoys some people does not annoy others. Thus, the ordinance is
vague, not in the sense that it requires a person to conform his conduct to an imprecise
but comprehensible normative standard, but rather in the sense that no standard of
conduct is specified at all. As a result, men of common intelligence must necessarily
guess at its meaning. Connally v. General Construction Co., 269 U.S. 385, 391.
It is said that the ordinance is broad enough to encompass many types of conduct
clearly within the city's constitutional power to prohibit. And so, indeed, it is. The city is
free to prevent people from blocking sidewalks, obstructing traffic, littering streets,
committing assaults, or engaging in countless other forms of antisocial conduct. It can
do so through the enactment and enforcement of ordinances directed with reasonable
specificity toward the conduct to be prohibited. It cannot constitutionally do so through
the enactment and enforcement of an ordinance whose violation may entirely depend
upon whether or not a policeman is annoyed.(emphasis and underscoring ours).
Same things can be said of Art. 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code that punishes
unjust vexations. As previously shown, the term"unjust vexations" is broad enough to
encompass many types of acts or conduct. But while these acts of types of conduct are
within the State's police power to prohibit and punish, it cannot however constitutionally
do so when its violation may entirely depend upon whether or not another is vexed or
annoyed by said act or conduct and whether or not said act or conduct is unjust is the
estimation of the court;
ARTICLE 287, PAR. 2 OF THE REVISED PENAL CODE IS AN INVALID
DELEGATION OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER to DEFINE what acts should be held to
be criminal and punishable.
The failure of Art. 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code to define or specify the act or
omission that it punishes likewise amounts to an invalid delegation by Congress of
legislative power to the courts to determine what acts should be held to be criminal and
punishable. Potestas delegata non delegare potest. What has been delegated cannot
be delegated. This doctrine is based on the ethical principle that such as delegated
power constitutes not only a right but a duty to be performed by the delegate through
the instrumentality of his own judgment and not through the intervening mind of another
(United States v. Barrias, 11 Phil. 327, 330);
Congress alone has power to define crimes. This power as an attribute of sovereignty
may not be delegated to the courts. When a criminal legislation leaves the halls of
Congress, it must be complete in itself in that it must clearly define and specify the acts
or omissions deemed punishable; and when it reaches the courts, there must be
nothing left for the latter to do, except to determine whether person or persons indicted
are guilty of committing the said acts or omissions defined and made punishable by
Congress. Otherwise, borrowing the immortal words of Justice Isagani Cruz in Ynot v.
Intermediate Appellate Court (148 SCRA 659), the law becomes a "roving commission,"
a wide and sweeping authority that is not "canalized within banks that keep it from
overflowing," in short a clearly profligate and therefore invalid delegation of legislative
powers;
Art. 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code fails to set an immutable and ascertainable
standard of guilt, but leaves such standard to the variant and changing views and
notions of different judges or courts which are called upon to enforce it. Instead of
defining the specific acts or omissions punished, it leaves to the courts the power to
determine what acts or types of conduct constitute "unjust vexation". Moreover, liability
under the said provision is also made dependent upon the varying degrees of sensibility
and emotions of people. It depends upon whether or not another is vexed or annoyed
by said act or conduct. As previously intimated, one cannot be convicted of a violation of
a law that fails to set up an immutable and an ascertainable standard of guilt.
Conclusion
In view of all the foregoing, Defendants submit that Art. 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal
Code that punishes "unjust vexations" is unconstitutional on its face for its fatal failure to
forbid a specific or definite act or conduct resulting to its congenital vagueness and
overbreadth which are anathema to constitutional due process and the right to be
informed of the nature of the offense charged;
Moreover, by leaving it to the judiciary to determine the "justness" or "unjustness" of an
act or conduct that is not clearly defined or specified by law constitutes a fixing by
Congress of an unascertainable standard of guilt and therefore an invalid delegation, if
not an abdication, of legislative power;
Therefore, the conclusion is inevitable that Art. 287, par. 2 of the Revised Penal Code,
being facially unconstitutional, cannot be a basis of any criminal prosecution. As such,
there is no offense to speak of and consequently, this Honorable Court cannot acquire
any jurisdiction whatsoever to try the defendants of the charge of "unjust vexation".
PRAYER
WHEREFORE, it view of all the foregoing, it is most respectfully prayed that the
information be quashed, and defendants discharged.
Other relief just and equitable are likewise prayed for.
_____________, Philippines, __Date__.
(COUNSEL)
(NOTICE OF HEARING)
(EXPLANATION)
COPY FURNISHED:
OPPOSING COUNSEL