Essay
invoked to escape liability for the
A. Mr. X is an officer of specialized agency
of the United Nations. He committed
against a 12 – year old child. A case
was filed against him. According to him,
he cannot be prosecuted in the
Philippines because he enjoys
immunity from suit in the discharge of
his official duties in the Philippines. To
prosecute him would run counter to the
privilege granted to him as a
specialized agent.
a. Rule on his contentions.
b. Assuming that he was
prosecuted and found guilty of
rape and was made to pay
damages but his only property
is a bank deposit in foreign
currency. Can he invoke the
bank secrecy deposit law to
escape payment of damages in
favor of his victim?
As Judge, I would dismiss his defense of
immunity. The mere invocation of State
Immunity does not, by the fact itself
result in the dropping of the prosecution
of the offender. The immunity mentioned
therein is not absolute but subject to
exception. The offender invoking it must
prove that the act done was in official
capacity or directly related to his duties.
The argument of the offender is
untenable. He is liable under the
principle where the law of the place
where the offense was done shall
control.
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Under the Philippine Foreign Deposit
Law, general is the rule that foreign
currency deposits are exempt from
attachment, garnishment, or any other
order of any court. However, in the
pursuance of justice and other equitable
grounds, the garnishment of a foreign
currency deposit should be allowed. The
exemption from garnishment of the
foreign currency deposit cannot be
damages to the victim. (Salvacion VS Banko
Sentral ng Pilipinas, August 1997)
B. In Private International Law what is:
a. Cognovit?
b. A borrowing statute
Under the law, a cognovits is a
confession of a judgment where a
portion of the complaint is confessed by
the defendant and as for the other
portions he shall deny thereof. It may
also refer to the written authority of the
debtor and his direction to the Clerk of
Court or Judge to enter judgment against
the debtor as stated in the case. Where,
the debtor acknowledges his
undertaking and promise, as what the
plaintiff alleges, and that the debtor
cannot deny that he owes and unjustly
detains from the plaintiff the sum
claimed by him, the defendant consents
that judgment be entered against the
defendant for a certain sum.
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Under the law, a borrowing statute,
directs the State of the Forum to apply
the foreign statute of limitations to the
pending claims that is based on a foreign
law. A borrowing statute is not applied if
it is prejudicial to the Constitution or
obnoxious to the Court’s policies
C. Q, a writer, copied almost entirely the
literary works of R who died later. The
heirs of R filed a copyright infringement
case against Q. Q moved for the
dismissal of the case contending that
the heirs are not the proper party to
this case but the State. Is Q correct?
Why or why not?
No
Under the law, general is the rule that in
the absence of any signed treaty,
copyrights protecting any literary work is
granted upon it by the Law of the State
where the copyright to the work was
accorded.
The heirs are the proper party because
under the law, any intellectual property
right owner, or anyone possession
interest under claim of ownership in any
intellectual property right, whose right
may have been violated, may file an
action. The argument of Q is improper
because the State, in the instant case,
only grants copyright protection over the
work. It has no legal interest over the
work, to which, infringement thereon
may prejudice the interests of the State.
Discuss the Manalo Doctrine (April 2018 case)
applying the Divorce judgment obtained
abroad.
Because the Family Code of the
Philippines stated, where a marriage
between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner
is validly celebrated and a divorce is
validly obtained abroad by the alien
spouse capacitating him or her to
remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have
capacity to remarry under Philippine
Law. In Republic versus Manalo, the
Supreme Court ruled that Philippine
courts are to extend the effect of a
foreign divorce decree to a Filipino
spouse without undergoing trial to
determine the validity of the dissolution
of the marriage. Because to do so, would
be tantamount to trying a divorce case,
where Philippine public policy does not
recognize divorce.
What are the consequences of marriage?
The following are some of the
consequences of marriage:
a) Rights and obligations between
husband and wife;
b) Property relations between
husband and wife;
c) The family, which embraces the
family as an institution and the
family home;
d) Adoption; and
e) Support
Discuss the concept of Depecage
Under the law, depecage is where
different aspects of a case involving a
foreign element may be governed by
different systems of law. where the
process of characterization by the court
of proper jurisdiction at the beginning of
the choice of law process assigns a
disputed question to the proper area in
substantive law.
Discuss the basic concepts of Renvoi
Under the Doctrine of Renvoi, it is where
a legal matter is presented by the conflict
of laws of the forum to refer to a foreign
State and its laws, the conflict of laws
rule of which, in turn refers the matter
back to the law of the forum or a third
state. However, the renvoi doctrine does
not apply when the referred foreign law
does not have a conflict of law rule on the
same subject matter. The referral to the
foreign law shall immediately pertain to
the internal laws of the foreign state.
Discuss some current updates in Conflict of
Laws
One such update is that the Supreme
Courts adopts the view that a divorce
decree obtained abroad by Filipinos
against foreigner spouses. Since divorce
is not allowed in the Philippines. The
Family Code states that, a marriage
between a Filipino Citizen and a
foreigner is validly celebrated and a
divorce is thereafter validly obtained
abroad by the alien spouse capacitating
him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse
shall have capacity to remarry under
Philippine law. The Supreme Court laid
the following requisites for such to
succeed: a) there is a valid marriage that
has been celebrated between a Filipino
and a foreigner; and b) A valid divorce is
obtained abroad by the alien spouse
capacitating him or her to remarry. The
reckoning point is the citizenship of the
divorcing couple at the time a valid
divorce is obtained abroad by the
foreigner spouse capacitating the
Filipino spouse to remarry.