Estrada v.

Sandiganbayan
G.R. No. 148560, November 19, 2001
Bellosillo, J.

FACTS:
Petitioner Joseph Ejercito Estrada, the highest-ranking official to be prosecuted under
RA 7080 (An Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder), as amended by RA
7659, wishes to impress upon the Court that the assailed law is unconstitutional for it
abolishes the element of mens rea in crimes already punishable under RPC.

ISSUE:
Is plunder, a crime punishable under a special penal law, mala in se which requires the
element of mens rea?

HELD:
Yes. The legislative declaration in R.A. No. 7659 that plunder is a heinous offense
implies that it is a malum in se. For when the acts punished are inherently immoral or
inherently wrong, they are mala in se and it does not matter that such acts are punished
in a special law, especially since in the case of plunder where the predicate crimes are
mainly mala in se. Indeed, it would be absurd to treat prosecutions for plunder as though
they are mere prosecutions for violations of the Bouncing Check Law (BP 22) or of an
ordinance against jaywalking, without regard to the inherent wrongness of the acts.