ACT NO. 3326

ACT NO. 3326 - AN ACT TO ESTABLISH PERIODS OF PRESCRIPTION FOR VIOLATIONS PENALIZED BY SPECIAL ACTS AND MUNICIPAL ORDINANCES AND TO PROVIDE WHEN PRESCRIPTION SHALL BEGIN TO RUN

Section 1. Violations penalized by special acts shall, unless otherwise provided in such acts, prescribe in accordance with the following rules: (a) after a year for offenses punished only by a fine or by imprisonment for not more than one month, or both; (b) after four years for those punished by imprisonment for more than one month, but less than two years; (c) after eight years for those punished by imprisonment for two years or more, but less than six years; and (d) after twelve years for any other offense punished by imprisonment for six years or more, except the crime of treason, which shall prescribe after twenty years. Violations penalized by municipal ordinances shall prescribe after two months.

Sec. 2. Prescription shall begin to run from the day of the commission of the violation of the law, and if the same be not known at the time, from the discovery thereof and the institution of judicial proceeding for its investigation and punishment.

The prescription shall be interrupted when proceedings are instituted against the guilty person, and shall begin to run again if the proceedings are dismissed for reasons not constituting jeopardy.

Sec. 3. For the purposes of this Act, special acts shall be acts defining and penalizing violations of the law not included in the Penal Code.

Sec. 4. This Act shall take effect on its approval.

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Remedial Law
Criminal Procedures
Prescription of Special Acts

CMU vs. The Honorable Secretary

G.R. No. 184869

September 21, 2010

Facts:

Central Mindanao University (CMU) is a chartered educational institution owned and run by the State. In Presidential Proclamation 476, 3,401 hectares of lands of the public domain in Bukidnon was reserved as a school site for CMU which eventually obtained title in its name over 3,080 hectares of those lands.  Meanwhile, the government distributed more than 300 hectares of the remaining untitled lands to several tribes belonging to the areas cultural communities.

Forty-five years later President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Presidential Proclamation 310 that takes 670 hectares from CMUs registered lands for distribution to indigenous peoples and cultural communities in Barangay Musuan, Maramag, Bukidnon.

CMU filed a petition for prohibition seeking to stop the implementation of Presidential Proclamation 310 and have it declared unconstitutional.

Issue: 

W/N Presidential Proclamation issued by President Arroyo to distribute to the ICCP in Bukidnon valid?

Ruling:

No it is not valid.  The lands by their character have become inalienable from the moment President Garcia dedicated them for CMUs use in scientific and technological research in the field of agriculture. They have ceased to be alienable public lands.

Besides, when Congress enacted the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) or Republic Act 8371^[9] in 1997, it provided in Section 56 that property rights within the ancestral domains already existing and/or vested upon its effectivity shall be recognized and respected. In this case, ownership over the subject lands had been vested in CMU as early as 1958. Consequently, transferring the lands in 2003 to the indigenous peoples around the area is not in accord with the IPRA.

Therefore, Presidential Proclamation 310 as null and void for being contrary to law and public policy.

Sison vs. Board of Accountancy

G.R. No. L-2529

Facts:

The Board of Accountancy issued a CPA certificate to a British national named Robert Orr Ferguson to practice his profession in the Philippines without examination.  The issuance of the said certificate was questioned by herein petitioner on the ground that there is no reciprocity between the Philippines and the United Kingdom as regards the practice of accountancy.

To resolve this matter, the Board of Accountancy suspended the validity of the CPA certificates until it can be proven that (a) Filipinos are allowed to take the professional accountant examination given by the British government, if any, and (b) Filipino certified public accountants can, upon application, be registered as chartered accountants or granted similar degrees by the British Government." This resolution is based on the findings that there is no law which regulates the practice of accountancy in England.  However, the Philippine Accountancy Law explicitly provides that the suspension or revocation of the certificate issued under the said Act may be done by the board for unprofessional conduct of the holder or other sufficient cause. The Secretary of Justice further said that he believes that "the change in administrative interpretation with respect to the existence of reciprocity between the Philippines and Great Britain as to the practice of accountancy," does not constitute sufficient cause for the suspension or revocation of the certificates in question within the meaning of said provision.

Issue:

W/N the issuance of the CPA certificates was valid in the absence of reciprocity between the Philippines and the British Government?

Ruling:

Yes it is valid as it comes within the realm of comity as contemplated in our law.  Comity is defined as the recognition which one nation allows within its territory the acts of foreign governments and tribunals, having due regard both to the international duty and convenience and the rights of its own citizens or of other persons who are under the protection of its laws.

The British minister in a note sent to the President of the Philippines wrote that that qualified Philippine citizen are allowed to practice the profession of accountancy including income tax accounting, in the United Kingdom since there is no governmental control of the accounting profession in the said country and any resident of the United Kingdom, of whatever nationality, may engage in the profession of accounting without formality.

Therefore, the SC finds no reason why Robert Orr Ferguson who had previously been registered as certified public accountants and issued the corresponding certificate public accountant in the Philippine Islands, should be suspended from the practice of his profession in these Islands.