WHY DO WE STUDY CASES?

Principally because the court’s opinion - as to what the law is when it

applies or interprets a statute where there is a controversy is law.

The Civil Code provides:

Article 8. Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the

Constitution shall form a part of the legal system of the Philippines.

Article 9. No judge or court shall decline to render judgment by reason of

the silence, obscurity or insufficiency of the laws.

Article 8 expresses the idea that the judicial decisions form part of the law of
the land. This is another way of saying that such decisions are as much law as the
statutes they interpret.

Article 9 expresses the idea that judges are compelled to make a ruling even
if the statute proves to be silent on the issue, obscure or ambiguous, or just
insufficient to resolve the controversy.

The question may be asked: what if there is no silence, obscurity or

insufficiency of the statute? In such cases, the intent of the legislator is said to be
clear. Then there is no need to interpret the statute. We say “dura lex sed lex”.

But it is in the nature of human language that we express ideas in general

terms. For example, if there is a law punishing the cutting of trees without prior
clearance from the DENR, the law may enumerate all the thousands of species of
trees that are covered by the prohibition. But, most likely, the law will simply state:

“No trees may be cut without prior clearance from the DENR.”

A person cut a bamboo tree without prior clearance from the DENR. He is
prosecuted. In his defense, he raises the point that bamboo tree is, technically
speaking, not a tree but a specie of grass and therefore not covered by the
prohibition. The DENR insists, however, that the bamboo tree is included because
the intent of the law was stop indiscriminate cutting of trees that prevent soil
erosion, etc. When confronted by these conflicting opinions, the judge has to
interpret the statute to determine whether or not bamboo trees are included in the
prohibition.
Because the law is almost always couched in general terms, there arises what
has been called the problem of the penumbra.

Using the example above, we discern three distinct phases or areas with
respect to the applicability of the word tree.

First, there will be plant species (flora) that are definitely included in the
word “tree” such as a mahogany tree.

There are also flora that are definitely not included in the word “tree”.
Nobody would consider a gumamela bush a tree.

And then there would be flora that may or may not be considered a “tree”. A
bamboo tree, despite its common name, belongs to this category. Technically
speaking, a bamboo is a specie of grass. As Wikipedia states:

Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants in

the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. x x x
In bamboo, as in other grasses, the internodal regions of the stem are
usually hollow and the vascular bundles in the cross-section are scattered
throughout the stem instead of in a cylindrical arrangement.
The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent. The absence of secondary
growth wood causes the stems of monocots, including the palms and large
bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering.

In fact the defendant can raise this Wikipedia entry in his defense.

But the prosecution may also cite Wikipedia in this fashion:

Bamboos include some of the fastest-growing plants in the world, [5] due to

a unique rhizome-dependent system. Certain species of bamboo can grow
910 mm (36 in) within a 24-hour period, at a rate of almost 40 mm (1+1⁄2 in) an
hour (a growth around 1 mm every 90 seconds, or 1 inch {2.54 centimeters}
every 40 minutes).[6] Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family.
This rapid growth and tolerance for marginal land, make bamboo a good
candidate for afforestation, carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation.
Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in South
Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, being used for building materials, as a food
source, and as a versatile raw product. Bamboo, like wood, is a natural composite
 material with a high strength-to-weight ratio useful for structures.[7] Bamboo's
strength-to-weight ratio is similar to timber, and its strength is generally similar to
a strong softwood or hardwood timber.
The prosecution can argue that in plain language, we refer to the
bamboo as a tree rather than a gras and that, more important, the purpose of
the law was to ban indiscriminate cutting of flora that grows rapidly in
marginal land, and is ideal for reforestation of the Philippines denuded
forests, carbon sequestration, and climate change mitigation. It is a building
material, especially for the poor and a veritable source of food. All these
constitute the purposes for regulating the cutting of trees by prohibiting it
except upon the express consent of the DENR. Therefore, bamboo trees
must be included in class of flora designated as “trees” under the law.

These are “penumbra” or gray areas of the law.

UMBRA

PENUMBRA

LIGHT

The settlement or resolution of such controversies as this is the essence of

judicial power. As expressed in Section 1 of Article VIII of the 1987 Constitution –

SECTION 1. The judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and
in such lower courts as may be established by law.
 Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to settle actual
controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable, and
to determine whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting
to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the
Government.

But take note that it is the decisions of the Supreme Court, the highest court
of the land, that is really part of the legal system of the Philippines.

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