UNITED STATES V.

ASENSI
34 PHIL. 750 (1916)

FACTS
 Defendant Manuel Asensi, an employee of Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas
was charged by the lower court with the crime of estafa, committed with the
falsification of a document.
 On 07 April 1914, Asensi unlawfully declare in the certification the total amount of
sales made by the abovementioned company during the First Quarter of 1914 with
the intent to defraud the abovementioned company did appropriate the same for
himself, thus causing damages and injuries to the said corporation amounting to the
said sum of P400, Philippine currency, equivalent to 2,000 pesetas.
 His unlawful act will be used for the payment of taxes before the Collector of Internal
Revenue.
 Upon said complaint, Asensi was duly arrested, arraigned, tried, found guilty of the
crime charged, and was sentenced by the lower court to be imprisoned for a period
of ten years and one day of presidio mayor, to pay a fine of P2,500 to suffer the
accessory penalties prescribed by law, and to pay the costs.

ISSUE
 Does the document falsified (certification) is not a public document?

HELD
 The Court ruled that the Penal Code contains no definition of what constitutes a
public document which it was held in the case of Cacnio v. Baens (5 Phil. Rep., 742)
that any instrument authorized by a notary public or a competent public official, with
the solemnities required by law, was a public document.
 The Court also held that the blank forms prepared by the Auditor of the Philippines
Islands, in accordance with Act No. 90 of the Philippine Commission, are public
documents as cited in U.S. v. Carrington (5 Phil. Rep., 725.) including the receipt
issued by the department of assessments and collections of the City of Manila, for
taxes collected, and one who falsifies the same is guilty of the falsification of a public
document as cited in U.S. v. Leyson (5 Phil. Rep., 447.)
 In this case, when Asensi presented to the internal revenue department of the
Government, it became a part of the records of that office and in our judgment is
fully invested with the character of an official or public document, as those terms are
used in articles 300 and 301 of the Penal Code.
 Asensi is guilty of the crime charged in the complaint, and should be sentenced in
accordance with the provisions of article 301 of the Penal Code, in its relation with
article 89 of the same code.