EVIDENCE
(AM 09-08-15-SC – MAY 1, 2020)
RULE 128
SECTION 1 EVIDENCE DEFINED
EVIDENCE: means, sanctioned by these rules, of
ascertaining in a judicial proceedings the truth
respecting a matter of fact.
To be admissible
1. Relevant: When evidence has such relation to
the fact in issue as to induce belief in its
existence or non-existence. There must be
actual connection shown with the transaction
involved and/or with the parties thereto.
2. Competent: When not excluded by the
Constitution, by the law or by the Rules.
FACTUM: A fact, event, doing, a statement of facts.
FACTUM PROBANDUM: The fact to be proved.
FACTUM PROBANDS: A probative or evidentiary fact; a
piece of circumstantial evidence.
SECTION 2 SCOPE
General Rule: Same in ALL courts and in ALL trials and
hearings
EXCEPTION: When the law or rules provides.
QUANTUM OF EVIDENCE
1. Civil: Preponderance of Evidence/Greater
Weight of Evidence
2. Criminal: Beyond reasonable doubt
3. Administrative: Substantial
SECTION 3 ADMISSIBILITY
Admissibility: The quality, state, or condition of being
allowed to be entered into evidence in a hearing, trial or
other official proceeding.
Kinds of Admissibility
1. Conditional Admissibility: When a piece of
evidence is not itself admissible, but is
admissible if certain other facts make it
relevant, the evidence becomes admissible on
condition that the counsel later introduce the
connecting facts.
- Pag di naconnect – opponent entitled to ask
the court na struck yun.
2. Curative Admissibility: Inadmissible piece of
evidence may be admitted if offered to cure or
counteract, the effect of some similar piece of
opponent’s evidence that itself should not have
been admitted.
3. Limited Admissibility: The principle that
testimony or exhibit may be admitted into
evidence for a restricted purpose.
4. Multiple Admissibility: The evidentiary rule that
although a piece of evidence is inadmissible
under one rule for the purpose given in offering
it, it is nevertheless admissible if relevant and
offered for some other purpose not forbidden
by the rules of evidence.
TWO UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED PRINCIPLES OF
ADMISSIBILITY
1. None, but facts having rational probative value
are admissible.
2. All facts having rational probative value are
admissible unless some specific rule forbids
their admission.
Elementary Rules of Evidence
- Matters offered in evidence must be
relevant to the issues of the case and must
tend to establish or disprove them.
- Facts and circumstances which afford
reasonable interferences or throw light
upon the matter or matters contested, are
admissible in evidence.
Admissibility vs. Probative weight of evidence
1. Admissibility
- Whether or not the circumstance is to be
considered at all.
- Whether certain pieces of evidence are to
be considered at all.
2. Probative value of evidence
- Whether or not it proves an issue.
SECTION 4 RELEVANCY
Relevancy of Evidence
 - Evidence must have such relation to the fact
in issue as to induce belief in its existence or
non-existence.
- Refers to probative value in relation to the
purpose for which it is offered.
- Logical relation between evidence and fact
to be established.
Collateral Matters
- Any matter on which evidence could not
have been introduced for a relevant
purpose.
General Rule: Evidence on collateral matters shall not
be allowed
Exception: When it tends in any reasonable degree to
establish the probability or improbability of the fact in
issue.
PURPOSE OF RELEVANCY
- Restrain the field of inquiry to its proper
scope and to prevent the issues from
becoming beclouded.
- To prevent surprise of a litigant or the
subjection of a party to the necessity of
meeting evidence possibly prejudicial, and
the character of which he has no means of
anticipating.
Logical Relevancy: the existence of such relationship in
logic between the fact of which evidence is offered and
the fact in issue; that the existence of the former
renders probable or improbable the existence of the
latter.
RULE 129
SECTION 1 JUDICIAL NOTICE – WHEN MANDATORY
Judicial Notice
- The cognizance of certain facts that judges
may properly take and act on without proof
because these facts are already known to
them.
Stare Decisis – a conclusion reached in one case should
be applied to those that follow if the facts are
substantially the same, even though the parties may be
different.
Judicial Notice – WHEN MANDATORY
1. Existence and territorial extent of States;
2. Political History;
3. Forms of Government and Symbols of
Nationality;
4. Law of Nations;
5. Admiralty and Maritime Courts of the world and
their seals
6. Political Constitution and History of the
Philippines;
7. Official Acts of
a. Legislative Department
b. Executive Department
c. Judicial Department
Ordinances not covered by Sec. 1 of Rule 129. The
party asking the court to take judicial notice is obligated
to supply the court with the full text of the rules the
party desires it to have notice of.
Laws of Nature, the measure of time and the
geographical divisions include the structural make-up
and composition of living things such as human beings.
Proof of Evidence may be dispended in two (2)
situations;
1. Where opponent by a solemn or infrajudicial
admission has waived the dispute; this is
considered as Judicial Admission.
2. Where the court is justified by general
considerations in declaring the truth of the
preposition without requiring evidence from
the party. This is the process mist commonly
known as Judicial Notice.
REQUISITES OF JUDICIAL NOTICE
1. The matter must be one of common and
general knowledge;
2. It must be well and authoritatively settled and
not doubtful or uncertain; and
3. It must be known to be within the limits of the
jurisdiction of the court.
Judicial Knowledge and Judicial Cognizance
Judicial Knowledge – The cognizance of certain facts
which a judge under the rules of legal procedure or
otherwise may properly take or act upon without proof.
Judicial Cognizance – taken only of those matters that
are commonly known.
Judicial notice is not judicial knowledge. The mere
personal knowledge of the judge us nit the judicial
knowledge of the court.
Courts cannot take judicial notice of the articles
appearing in the website because such article is not well
and authoritatively settled and is doubtful or uncertain.
The court cannot take judicial notice of foreign laws
which must be presented as public documents of a
foreign country and must be evidenced by an official
publication thereof. Mere reference to a foreign law in a
pleading does not suffice for it to be considered in
deciding a case.
SECTION 2 JUDICIAL NOTICE – WHEN DISCRETIONARY.
Judicial Notice – When Discretionary
1. Public knowledge and unquestionable
demonstration
o Facts that are so commonly known
in the community as to make it
unprofitable to require proof, and
so certainly known, as to make it
indisputable among reasonable
men.
2. Ought to be known to judges because of their
judicial function
SECTION 3 JUDICIAL NOTICE – WHEN HEARING
NECESSARY – During the pre-trial and the trial, the
court, motu proprio or upon motion, shall hear the
parties on the propriety of taking judicial notice of any
matter.
Before judgment or on appeal, the court, motu proprio
or upon motion, may take judicial notice of any matter
and shall hear the parties thereon if such matter is
decisive of a material issue in the case.
WHEN HEARING MAY BE DISPENSED WITH: EXCEPTION
General Rule: As a rule, courts do not take judicial
notice of the evidence presented in other proceedings,
even if these have been tried or are pending in the
same court or before the same judge. (Metropolitan
Bank and Trust Company vs. Sps. Miranda)
Exception: In some instances, courts have also taken
judicial notice of proceedings in other cases that are
closely connected to the matter in controversy. These
cases may be so closely interwoven, or so clearly
interdependent, as to invoke a rule of judicial notice.
SECTION 4 JUDICIAL ADMISSION
Judicial Admission
- An admission, oral or written, made by the
party in the course of the proceedings in
the same case, does not require proof.
- Those made in court by a person’s attorney
for the purpose of being used as a
substitute for the regular legal evidence of
the facts at the trial.
- It is a waiver of proof; production of
evidence is dispensed with.
- Removes an admitted fact from the field of
controversy.
- Contradicted only by a showing that it was
made through palpable mistake or that no
such admission was made.
Judicial Admissions made by a party in the course of the
proceedings are conclusive and do not require proof.
Documents attached to the complaint are considered a
part thereof and may be considered as evidence
although they were not introduced as such. (Asia
Banking Corporation vs. Walter E. Olsen & Co.)
A party can make judicial admission in the following
instances:
a. In the pleadings filed by the parties;
b. In the course of the trial, either by
verbal or written manifestation or
stipulations; or
c. In other stages of the judicial
proceeding as in the pre-trial of the
case.
Judicial Admission cannot be contradicted by the
admitter himself.
RULE 30
SECTION 1 OBJECT AS EVIDENCE
Object Evidence
- Those addressed to the senses of the court.
- Anything which comes within the
cognizance or scrutiny of the senses,
especially anything tangible or visible.
- That which is perceived, known, thought of,
or signified; that toward which a cognitive
act is directed.
SECTION 2 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
Document
- Consists of writings, recordings,
photographs or any material containing
letters, words, sounds, numbers, figures,
symbols, or their equivalent, or other
modes of written expression offered as
proof of their contents.
- Photographs include still pictures, drawings,
stored images, x-ray films, motion pictures
or videos
- An instrument upon which recorded, by
means of letters, figures, or marks, matter
which may evidentially be used. (Wharton)
Writing
- Also encompasses artwork, engineering
drawings, architectural designs, and GPS
display.
Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) Rule 1001 (a) to (c)
Writing – consists of letters, words, numbers, or their
equivalent set down in any form.
Recording – consists of letters, words, numbers, or their
equivalent recorded in any manner.
Photograph – means a photographic image or its
equivalent stored in any form.
SECTION 3 ORIGINAL DOCUMENT (FRE Rule 1004)
OLD RULE: BEST EVIDENCE RULE
NEW RULE: ORIGINAL DOCUMENT RULE
General Rule: Original document must be produced.
Exceptions:
1. When the original is lost or destroyed, or cannot
be produced in court, without bad faith on the
part of the offeror;
2. When the original is in the custody or under the
control of the party against whom the evidence
is offered, and the latter fails to produce it after
reasonable notice, or the original cannot be
obtained by local judicial processes or
procedures;
3. When the original consists of numerous
accounts or other documents which cannot be
examined in court without great loss of time
and the fact sought to be established from them
is only the general result of the whole;
4. When the original is a public record in the
custody of a public officer or is recorded in a
public office; and
5. When the original is not closely-related to a
controlling issue.
The original document rule applies only when the
content of such document is the subject of the inquiry
Condition for the admission of the summary of
numerous documents.
- Must lay a proper foundation for the
admission of the original documents on
which the summary is based.
- The source documents being summarized
are also admissible if present in court.
- The source documents must likewise be
accessible to the opposing party so that the
correctness of the summary of the
voluminous records may be tested on cross-
examination and/or may be refuted in
pleadings.
LOST OR DESTROYED DOCUMENTS:
Elements:
1. Prove the existence or due execution of the
original;
2. Prove the loss and destruction of the original, or
the reason for its non-production in court; and
3. Prove the absence of bad faith on the part of
the offeror to which the unavailability of the
original can be attributed.
Evidence that one did or did not do a certain thing at
one time is not admissible to prove that he did or did
not do the same or similar thing at another time. While
the TOR may be received to prove his identity or habit
as an exceptional PMA student, it does not show his
specific intent, plan, or scheme as cadet accused of
committing a specific Honor Code violation.
SECTION 4 ORIGINAL OF DOCUMENT.
Section 4 (a) = FRE Rule 1001 (d)
An ORIGINAL of a writing or recording means the
writing or recording itself or any counterpart intended
to have the same effect by the person who executed or
issued it. For electronically stored information, original
means any printout – or other output readable by sight
– if it accurately reflects the information. An original of
a photograph includes the negative or a print from it.

Section 4 (b) = FRE Rule 1001 (e)

A DUPLICATE mean a counterpart produced by a

mechanical, photographic, chemical, electronic, or other
equivalent process or technique that accurately
reproduces the original.